UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


HISTORY 


PHILIP  THE  SECOND. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  REIGN 

PHILIP  THE  SECOND 

KING   OF   SPAIN 

By   WILLIAM    H.    PRESCOTT 
EDITED  BY  JOHN  FOSTER  KIRK 


VOLUME   II. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

J.   B.   LIPPINCOTT    COMPANY. 


Copyright,  1855, 
By  WILLIAM  H.  PRESCOTT. 

Copyright,  1874, 
Bv  J.  B.   LIPPINCOTT  &  CO. 

Copyright,  1882, 
By  WILLIAM  G.  PRESCOTT. 


Philip  the  Second— Vol.  II. 


Li/'pincoW s  Press,  Philadelphia. 


I 

h 


CONTENTS    OF    VOL.    II. 


BOOK    II. 
CHAPTER    X. 

PAGB 

The  Confederates i 

Different  Classes  of  Malecontents i 

Petition  prepared 2 

Discussion  as  to  receiving  it 3 

Speech  of  Orange 3 

Confederates  enter  Brussels 5 

Present  the  Petition 6 

Its  Purport    .,,....,..  7 

Answer  of  Margaret 8 

Banquet  at  Culemborg  House 11 

The  Gueux la 

Symbols  and  Devices 13 

The  People  emboldened 15 

CHAPTER    XL 

Freedom  of  Worship 16 

Brederode  at  Antwerp           .       ' <  16 

Mission  of  Bergen  and  Montig^ny 17 

The  "  Moderation" 18 

Singular  Fraud 19 

Sects  of  the  Reformers 20 

Field-Preaching 21 

Attended  by  Great  Multitudes 24 

(iii) 


CONTENTS. 


Alarm  at  Antwerp 25 

Orange  sent  there  .        .        .    ' 26 

He  restores  Quiet 27 

Activity  of  the  Regent 28 

Her  Anxiety .        1         •        .  29 

Dilatory  Course  of  Philip 30 

His  Dissimulation 31 

Meeting  at  St.  Trond 31 

Moderate  Party  disgusted 32 

Deputation  to  Brussels 33 

Boldness  of  the  Confederates 33 

Military  Preparations 34 

Royal  Council  at  Madrid 36 

It  advises  Concessions 37 

Philip  consents 38 

His  Insincerity 40 

Character  of  Pius  V. 41 

He  urges  an  Extermination  of  Heretics        ....  42 

Philip's  Perfidy 44 

His  Concessions  distrusted 45 


CHAPTER   XII. 


The  Iconoclasts      .       .       .       . 
Progress  of  the  Reformers    . 
Violence  of  the  Preachers 
Outbreak  of  the  Iconoclasts  , 

Scandalous  Proceedings  at  Antwerp 
The  Cathedral  sacked 
Timidity  of  the  Citizens    . 
Outrages  throughout  the  Land 
Extent  of  the  Devastation 
Consternation  at  Brussels 
The  Capital  in  Peril 
Demand  for  Freedom  of  Worship 
Margaret  refuses  to  grant  it 
She  prepares  to  quit  Brussels 
Is  compelled  to  remain 
Terms  made  with  the  Confederates 


47 

47 
48 

49 

50 
SI 

53 
55 
57- 
58 
59 


63 


CONTENTS. 


The  Disorders  suppressed 
Compact  with  the  Reformers 
The  Confederates  lose  their  Influence 
Margaret  changes  her  Course 
Seeks  the  Advice  of  Vighus     . 
Denounces  her  late  Advisers 
Indifference  of  Orange  and  Hoorne 
Different  Feelings  of  Egmont 
Philip  informed  of  the  Disturbances 
View  taken  in  the  Royal  Council 
Secret  Intelligence  of  Orange 
Intercepted  Letter  of  Alva 
Conference  at  Dendermonde  . 
Egmont  prevents  a  Decision 
Charges  the  Regent  with  Perfidy 
Rumors  of  Philip's  Designs 
Preparations  for  Resistance 
Appeal  to  the  German  Protestants 
Orange  a  Lutheran  at  Heart   . 


FAGB 

64 
64 
67 

68 
69 
70 
71 
71 
72 
73 
75 
76 

17 
78 
78 
80 
80 
81 
82 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

The  Regent's  Authority  re-established       ...  85 

The  Party  of  Reform  divided 85 

Margaret  profits  by  their  Dissensions 86 

Publishes  a  New  Edict 86 

Levies  Troops 87 

Resistance  of  Valenciennes          ......  88 

New  Petition  of  the  Confederates  ....         ,         .  90 

Margaret's  Haughty  Reply 90 

The  Confederates  take  up  Arms 91 

Troops  sent  against  them 92 

The  Insurgents  defeated 93 

Tumult  in  Antwerp 94 

Appeased  by  Orange 97 

Siege  of  Valenciennes 98 

It  refuses  to  capitulate 100 

Its  Bombardment loi 

Preparations  for  Assault 102 

A* 


vi  CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

Unconditional  Surrender 102 

The  Insurrection  quelled 104 


V  CHAPTER    XIV. 


Tranquillity  restored 105 

Oath  of  Implicit  Obedience 105 

Orange  requested  to  subscribe 106 

He  refuses 107 

His  Hazardous  Position 108 

Attempt  to  persuade  him 109 

Interview  with  Egmont no 

Difference  of  their  Characters in 

Their  Affection  for  each  other 112 

William  quits  the  Netherlands 113 

Resides  at  Dillemburg 114 

Joined  by  many  of  the  Nobles 115 

Hoorne  takes  the  Oath 115 

Egmont's  Loyalty 116 

Submission  of  Antwerp 117 

Margaret  visits  it I17 

published 119 

the  King 120 

m  the  German  Princes 120 

;derode 121 

His  Adherents  scattered 122 

Resistance  subdued  in  Holl^d 123 

Severity  of  the  Government   . 124 

Alarm  caused  by  Alva's  Appointment         ....  126 

Margaret  disgusted 126 

Apparent  Order  in  the  Country 127 

Dangerous  Elements  at  Work 128 


CONTENTS.  vii 

BOOK     III. 
CHAPTER   I. 

PAGE 

Alva  sent  to  th]§^  Netherlands 129 

The  King's  Intended  Visit 129 

His  Sincerity  distrusted 130 

Discussion  in  the  Royal  Council 131 

Two  Courses  proposed 132 

The  King  resolves  to  send  Alva 133 

Proclaims  his  Purpose  to  follow 134 

Alva  receives  his  Instructions 137 

Sails  for  Italy 137 

Composition  of  his  Army 138 

Order  of  March 140 

Passage  of  the  Alps 141 

Perilous  Route 143 

Admirable  Discipline 144 

Arrival  at  Thionville 146 

Entry  into  Brussels 147 

Interview  with  the  Regent 147 

Alva's  Commission .  148 

Extent  of  his  Powers 149 

Mortification  of  Margaret 150 

Her  Remonstrances  fruitless 152 

Alva's  Reputation 155 

Apprehensions  of  the  People 157 

Gloom  of  Brussels 158 

Snare  prepared  for  the  Nobles 159 

Egmont  and  Hoorne  arrested i6i 

Sent  to  the  Castle  of  Ghent 163 

Sensation  in  the  Country 164 

Margaret  determines  to  retire 165 

Satisfaction  at  Madrid 166 

Remark  of  Granvelle .  167 


viii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    11. 


\ 


PAGB 

Critel  Policy  of  Alva i68 

Order  in  the  Netherlands i68 

Emigration  prohibited 169 

The  Council  of  Blood 170 

Its  Members .         .         .  170 

Method  of  Proceeding 173 

Enormous  Powers 17S 

Illegal  Character 176 

Alva  in  Need  of  Money 178 

Financial  Expedients 179 

Summons  sent  to  Orange 181 

His  Son  removed  to  Spain 182 

Civil  War  in  France 184 

Catherine  de  Medicis 184 

Advice  of  Philip  and  Alva 185 

The  Huguenots  defeated     , 186 

Humiliating  Position  of  Margaret 187 

Her  Resignation  accepted 188 

Last  Request  to  Philip 189 

She  takes  Leave  of  the  People 189 

Their  Regret 191 

She  retires  to  Italy 192 

Her  Political  Career 19a 

Difficulties  of  her  Position 194 

\   CHAPTER    III. 

Reign  of  Terror 197 

Decree  of  the  Inquisition 197 

Enlarged  Powers  of  Alva 199 

Pursuit  of  Suspected  Parties 20c 

Numerous  Arrests 201 

Alva's  Merciless  Spirit 20a 

Unrelenting  Persecution 203 

Fortitude  of  the  Victims 203 


STATi;  ,.. 

Los  Ai)gt 


CONTENTS.  ix 

PAGB 

Universal  Terror 206 

Banishment  and  Confiscation 206 

General  Distress 207 

Vargas  and  Hessels 209 

The  "  Wild  Gueux" 211 

Remonstrances  of  Maximilian 212 

Philip's  Stern  Reply 213 

The  People  appeal  l^Orange 213 

He  raises  Troops 214 

Publishes  a  "  Justification" 215 

Plan  of  Invasion 217 

Pecuniary  Difficulties 217 

Defeat  of  Hoogstraten  and  Cocqueville          ....  218 

Count  Louis  at  Heyligerlee 219 

Attacked  by  Aremberg 22a 

The  Patriots  victorious 221 

Indignation  of  Alva 223 

He  prepares  to  take  the  Field 223 

Displays  his  Vindictive  Feelings 224 

Tragic  Scenes  at  Brussels ,  226 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Trials  of  Egmont  and  Hoorne       .       .       .       .       .  229 

The  Prisoners  at  Ghent 229 

Sequestration  of  their  Property 229 

Their  Examination 230 

Efforts  in  their  Behalf 231 

The  Statutes  of  the  Toison  d'Or 232 

Intercession  of  Granvelle 233 

Articles  of  Accusation 234 

Egmont's  Defence  .        . 236 

Manly  Language  of  Hoorne 238 

Elaborate  Defence  by  Counsel 238 

Piteous  Appeal  of  the  Countess  Egmont    ....  240 

Further  Delay  forbidden 242 

The  Prisoners  sentenced 243 

The  Rights  of  the  Toison 244 

Mockery  of  J-ustice 246 

I* 


CONTENTS. 


X"^  CHAPTER    V. 

PAGE 

Execution  of  Egmont  and  Hoorne        ....  250 

The  Counts  removed  to  Brussels 250 

Lodged  in  the  Maison  du  Roi 251 

Sentence  communicated  to  Egmont    .._...  252 

His  Emotions 252 

His  Preparations  for  Death 253 

Affecting  Letter  to  the  King 254 

Final  Arrangements 255 

The  Place  of  Execution 256 

Mournful  Air  of  the  City 257 

Egmont's  Noble  Bearing 258 

The  Fatal  Stroke 259 

Horror  of  the  Spectators 259 

Hoorne  conducted  to  the  Scaffold 260 

His  Execution 261 

Removal  of  the  Bodies 262 

Egmont's  Character 263 

Want  of  Fixed  Principles 265 

The  Idol  of  his  Countrymen 266 

Supposed  Enmity  of  Alva 266 

Stern  Policy  of  the  Duke 268 

His  Narrow,  Inflexible  Mind 269 

His  Compassion  for  Egmont's  Widow 271 

Her  Pitiable  Condition 272 

She  solicits  Aid  from  the  King 274 

Receives  a  Meagre  Pension 275 

Results  of  Egmont's  Execution 276 

Not  foreseen  by  Alva 278 


CHAPTER    VI. 

Secret  Execution  of  Montigny 279 

Bergen  and  Montigny 279 

Conjectures  as  to  their  Fate 279 

Purpose  of  their  Embassy 281 


CONTENTS.  xi 

PACB 

Their  Reluctance  to  undertake  it 281 

Anxiety  to  return 283 

A  Perplexing  Dilemma 285 

Bergen's  Death 286 

Montigny  confined  at  Segovia 287 

Attempt  to  escape 287 

The  Plot  detected 288 

Supplications  of  his  Wife 289 

Process  instituted  against  him 290 

The  Sentence  kept  secret 291 

Prisoner  removed  to  Simancas 293 

Illusive  Hopes 295 

Pretence  for  Stricter  Confinement 296 

Instructions  to  Arellano 297 

Montigny  unprepared  for  his  Fate 298 

Receives  the  Consolations  of  Religion        ....  299 

His  Last  Wishes *    .  300 

His  Execution 302 

False  Reports  disseminated 304 

Popular  Suspicions 305 

Philip's  Magnanimity 306 

Montigny's  Estates  confiscated 306 

Atrocity  of  the  Proceedings 307 

Groan  and  Gachard 308 


BOOK    IV. 

CHAPTER    I. 

The  Ottoman  Empire 312 

Method  pursued  in  this  Work 31a 

Ottoman  Power  in  the  Sixteenth  Century       ....  314 

Government  of  Turkey 314 

Conscription  of  Christian  Children 315 

The  Janizaries 317 

Conquests  of  the  Turks 318 


xii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Their  Naval  Power 319 

The  African  Corsairs 320 

Terror  of  the  Spanish  Coasts 321 

Perpetual  War  on  the  Mediterranean         ....  322 

The  Captives  in  Barbary 322 

Dragut 324 

Fleet  sent  against  Tripoli 325 

Refits  at  Malta 326 

Spaniards  occupy  Gelves 326 

Victory  of  the  Turkish  Fleet 327 

Attack  on  Gelves 328 

Extremity  of  the  Garrison 330 

Desperate  Sally 331 

Slaughter  of  the  Christians 331 

Spanish  Possessions  in  Africa 333 

Calamitous  Shipwreck 334 

Expedition  from  Algiers 334 

Siege  of  Oran  and  Mazarquivir 337 

Assault  on  Fort  St.  Michael J38 

Invincible  Courage  of  the  Spaniards 339 

Storming  of  Mazarquivir 341 

Martin  de  Cordova .         .  343 

Famine  among  the  Christians 343 

Succors  from  Spain "  ,         .  344 

The  Siege  raised 345 

Conquest  of  Penon  de  Velez 347 


CHAPTER    II. 

The  Knights  Hospitallers  of  St.  John        .       .       .  349 

The  Knights  of  St.  John 349 

Conflicts  with  the  Moslems 350 

Wealth  of  the  Order 350 

Its  Statutes  and  Government 351 

Fidelity  to  its  Principles 352 

The  Knights  driven  from  Rhodes 353 

Cession  of  Malta  by  Charles  V. 354 

Change  in  its  Condition 355 

The  Maltese  Navy 356 


CONTENTS.  xiii 

PAGB 

Sweeps  the  Turkish  Seas 357 

Solyman  prepares  to  take  Vengeance  ,         .         .        .  358 

Parisot  de  la  Valette 358 

Preparations  for  Defence 359 

Sicilian  Viceroy  promises  Aid 360 

Muster  of  the  Knights 360 


CHAPTER    III. 

Siege  of  Malta 362 

Description  of  Malta 362 

Its  Harbors  and  Defences 363 

Force  under  La  Valette 364 

Castle  of  St.  Elmo 365 

The  Turkish  Armament 367 

Troops  disembarked        ........  368 

Skirmishes 369 

Turks  lay  Siege  to  St.  Elmo 369 

Garrison  reinforced 370 

The  Outworks  taken 372 

Fierce  Struggle  in  the  Ditch 374 

New  Batteries  raised 375 

Effect  of  the.  Fire  on  St.  Elmo 376 

Garrison  propose  to  abandon  it 376 

Commissioners  inspect  it 379 

Report  it  tenable 380 

The  Garrison  humbled 381 

Permitted  to  remain 381 

Assault  by  the  Turks 382 

Struggle  at  the  Breach 383 

Attempted  Escalade 384 

The  Turks  driven  back 387 

Reinforcement  from  11  Borgo 387 

Communications  cut  off 389 

Mournful  Celebration 391 

Fresh  Assault 391 

Last  Triumph  of  the  Garrison 392 

Their  Desperate  Condition 393 

Their  Heroic  Constancy 394 

Philip.— Vol.  II.— b 


xiv  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Incredible  Resistance 39S 

St.  Elmo  taken 396 

Brutal  Conduct  of  Mustapha 397 

Death  of  Dragut 398 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Siege  of  Malta 401 

II  Borgo  and  La  Sangle      .......  401 

Reinforcement  from  Sicily 403 

Mustapha  offers  Terms 404 

The  Fortresses  invested 406 

Preparations  for  the  Assault 407 

Advance  of  the  Turkish  Boats 408 

Attack  on  the  "  Spur" 409 

Courageous  Defence 410 

Turkish  Barges  sunk 412 

Merciless  Slaughter 413 

Hassem's  Attack  repulsed 414 

Renewed  Cannonade 416 

Efforts  of  the  Besieged 417 

Timid  Policy  of  the  Viceroy 419 

Exhortations  of  La  Valette 420 

Successive  Assaults 422 

Perilous  Moment 424 

Night  Attack 426 

Losses  of  the  Christians 427 

Their  Critical  Condition 429 

Resolute  Spirit  of  La  Valette 430 


CHAPTER    V. 

Siege  of  Malta 431 

State  of  the  Turkish  Army 431 

Fruitless  Expedients 432 

The  Troops  dispirited 433 

Arrival  of  the  Sicilian  Fleet 434 

Joy  of  the  Garrison 435 


CONTENTS.  XV 

FAGB 

Mustapha  prepares  to  give  Battle 436 

Ardor  of  the  Spaniards 437 

The  Turks  overpowered 438 

Driven  to  the  Ships 439 

Departure  of  the  Fleet 439 

Arrival  of  the  Viceroy 440 

Hospitality  of  the  Knights 441 

Fury  of  the  Sultan 44a 

Losses  sustained  in  the  Siege 443 

The  Operations  reviewed 444 

Errors  of  the  Turks '      .         .        .  444 

Spirit  of  the  Defenders 44S 

Character  of  La  Valette 446 

Conduct  of  the  Viceroy 447 

Honors  paid  to  La  Valette 449 

He  builds  a  New  Capital 451 

His  Death 453 

Subsequent  History  of  tlie  Order 454 

/    CHAPTER    VI. 

Don  Carlos .  457 

^  Fate  of  Carlos  and  Isabella 457 

Theme  of  Romantic  Fiction 457 

Early  Life  of  Carlos 458 

Charles  V.'s  Opinion  of  him 460 

Mode  of  spending  the  Day 461 

Distaste  for  Study  and  Manly  Exercises  ....  462 

Character  in  the  Venetian  Reports 463 

Enfeebled  Constitution 465 

Recognition  as  Heir 466 

Removal  to  Alcali. 466 

Dangeroiis  Illness 467 

Miraculous  Cure      .........  469 

Extravagant  Behavior 471 

Anecdotes  of  Carlos 472 

Tiepolo's  Account  of  him 475 

Strong  Attachment  of  his  Friends 476 

Disliked  by  his  Father 478 

Alliances  proposed  for  him 479 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

His  Connection  with  the  Flemings 481 

Not  confirmed  by  Documents 482 

Outrage  on  Alva 483 

Project  of  Flight 484 

Indications  of  Insanity  485 

Flight  prevented 487 

Quarrel  with  Don  John 488 

Carlos  deprived  of  Liberty 49a 

Strictly  guarded 491 

Process  against  him 492 


X' 


CHAPTER    VIL 

Death  of  Don  Carlos 493 

Sensation  throughout  Spain 493 

Philip's  Explanations 494 

Letter  to  the  Queen  of  Portugal 494 

Insanity  intimated  as  the  Ground 497 

Difficulties  of  this  View 498 

Important  Documents  missing 498 

Communications  to  the  Nuncio 503 

Suspicions  of  Heresy 504 

Sympathy  with  the  Flemings 505 

Parricidal  Designs 506 

Philip's  Aversion  to  his  Son 507 

No  Intercourse  with  the  World 51° 

Attendants  and  Guards •       .        .  511 

Fruitless  Efforts  in  his  Behalf ,  512 

The  Subject  buried  in  Silence 514 

Papers  of  Carlos 515 

Philip's  Apprehensions 516 

Desperation  of  Carlos 517 

Disregard  of  Admonitions 518 

His  Excesses 519 

His  Health  destroyed 520 

Change  in  his  Deportment 522 

Philip's  Benediction 523. 

Death  of  Carlos 524 

Authority  for  this  Account 524 


CONTExVTS.  xvii 

PAGB 

LloJ-ente's  Account S'^i 

Unsubstantiated  by  Proof 528 

Rumors  current  at  the  Time 529 

Discrepancies  of  the  various  Accounts        ....  53^ 

Insufficiency  of  the  Evidence           ......  53* 

Suspicious  Circumstances 534 

Motives  for  getting  rid  of  Carlos 534 

Unscrupulous  Character  of  Philip 535 

Quarrel  in  the  Palace 537 

Obsequies  of  Carlos S38 

Public  Sorrow 540 

Philip's  Feelings 542 

His  Responsibility 543 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

Death  of  Isabella 546 

Amours  of  Carlos  and  Isabella 546 

Horrible  Tale  of  Revenge 546 

No  Authority  but  Rumor S48 

Means  of  establishing  the  Truth 549 

The  Queen's  Sympathy  for  Carlos 550 

His  Feeling  towards  her 551 

No  Vulgar  Passion 552 

Phihp's  Kindness  to  his  Wife 55a 

Her  Popularity  in  Spain 554 

Desire  to  reclaim  Carlos  .......  555 

Pity  for  his  Fate 555 

Her  Illness 557 

Her  Last  Hours 558 

Final  Interview  with  Philip 559 

Message  to  her  Family 560 

Her  Death 560 

Funeral  Honors 562 

Mission  of  Cardinal  Guise .  563 

No  Mystery  in  the  Narrative 565 

Philip  not  jealous  of  Isabella 565 

Her  Influence  over  him 566 

Brant6me's  Portrait  of  her     .......  567 

B* 


HISTORY 

OF 

PHILIP    THE    SECOND. 


BOOK  II. 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE   CONFEDERATES. 

Designs  of  the  Confederates. — They  enter  Brussels. — The  Petition. — 
The  Gueux. 

1566. 

The  party  of  the  malecontents  in  the  Netherlands 
comprehended  persons  of  very  different  opinions,  who 
were  by  no  means  uniformly  satisfied  with  the  reasonable 
objects  proposed  by  the  Compromise.  Some  demanded 
entire  liberty  of  conscience.  Others  would  not  have 
stopped  short  of  a  revolution  that  would  enable  the 
country  to  shake  off  the  Spanish  yoke.  And  another 
class  of  men  without  principle  of  any  kind — such  as 
are  too  often  thrown  up  in  strong  political  fermenta- 
tions— looked  to  these  intestine  troubles  as  offering  the 
means  of  repairing  their  own  fortunes  out  of  the  wreck 
of  their  country's.  Yet,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Philip.— Vol.  II.— a  i 


2  THE    CONFEDERATES. 

last,  there  were  few  who  would  not  have  been  content 
to  accept  the  Compromise  as  the  basis  of  their  demands. 

The  winter  had  passed  away,  however,  and  the  con- 
federacy had  wrought  no  change  in  the  conduct  of  the 
government.  Indeed,  the  existence  of  the  confederacy 
would  not  appear  to  have  been  known  to  the  regent  till 
the  latter  part  of  February,  1566.  It  was  not  till  the 
close  of  the  following  month  that  it  was  formally  dis- 
closed to  her  by  some  of  the  great  lords.'  If  it  was 
known  to  her  before,  Margaret  must  have  thought  it 
prudent  to  affect  ignorance  till  some  overt  action  on 
the  part  of  the  league  called  for  her  notice. 

It  became  then  a  question  with  the  members  of  the 
league  what  was  next  to  be  done.  It  was  finally  resolved 
to  present  a  petition  in  the  name  of  the  whole  body  to 
the  regent,  a  measure  Avhich,  as  already  intimated,  re- 
ceived the  assent,  if  not  the  approbation,  of  the  prince 
of  Orange.  The  paper  was  prepared,  as  it  would  seem, 
in  William's  own  house  at  Brussels,  by  his  brother 
Louis,  and  was  submitted,  we  are  told,  to  the  revision 
of  the  prince,  who  thus  had  it  in  his  power  to  mitigate, 
in  more  than  one  instance,  the  vehemence,  or  rather 
violence,  of  the  expressions. - 

To  give  greater  effect  to  the  petition,  it  was  deter- 

*  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  pp.  399,  401. 

»  "  Libello  ah  Orangio  coeteiisque  in  lenius  verborum  genus  com- 
niutato."  Vandcr  Haer,  De  Initiis  Tumultuum,  p.  207. — Alonzo  del 
Canto,  the  royal  contador,  takes  a  different  and  by  no  means  so  prob- 
able a  view  of  William's  amendments:  "  Quand  les  seigneurs  tenaient 
lours  assemblees  secr(!;tes  k  Bruxelles,  c'etait  en  la  maison  du  prince 
d'Orange,  ou  lis  entraient  de  nuit  par  la  porte  de  derrifere :  ce  fut  Ik 
que  la  requefe  dcs  confederes  fut  modifiee  et  rendu  pire."  Corre- 
spondance de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  411. 


u 

THEIR  DESIGNS.  3 

mined  that  a  large  deputation  from  the  league  should 
accompany  its  presentation  to  the  regent.  Notice  was 
given  to  four  hundred  of  the  confederates  to  assemble 
at  the  beginning  of  April.  They  were  to  come  well 
mounted  and  armed,  prepared  at  once  to  proceed  to 
Brussels.  Among  the  number  thus  enrolled,  we  find 
three  gentlemen  of  Margaret's  own  household,  as  well 
as  some  members  of  the  companies  of  onhnnance  com- 
manded by  the  prince,  and  by  the  Counts  Egmont 
and  Hoorne,  and  other  great  lords. ^ 

The  duchess,  informed  of  these  proceedings,  called 
a  meeting  of  the  council  of  state  and  the  knights  of 
the  Golden  Fleece,  to  determine  on  the  course  to  be 
pursued.  The  discussion  was  animated,  as  there  was 
much  difference  of  opinion.  Some  agreed  with  Count 
Barlaimont  in  regarding  the  measure  in  the  light  of  a 
menace.  Such  a  military  array  could  have  no  other 
object  than  to  overawe  the  government,  and  was  an 
insult  to  the  regent.  In  the  present  excited  state  of 
the  people,  it  would  be  attended  with  the  greatest 
danger  to  allow  their  entrance  into  the  capital.'' 

The  prince  of  Orange,  who  had  yielded  to  Margaret's 
earnest  entreaties  that  he  would  attend  this  meeting, 
took  a  different  view  of  the  matter.  The  number  of 
the  delegates,  he  said,  only  proved  the  interest  taken 
in  the  petition.  They  were  men  of  rank,  some  of  them 
kinsmen  or  personal  friends  of  those  present.  Their 
characters  and  position  in  the  country  were  sufficient 
sureties  that  they  meditated  no  violence  to  the  state. 
They  were  the  representatives  of  an  ancient  order  of 

3  Archives  de  la  Maison  d' Orange-Nassau,  torn.  ii.  p.  59,  et  seq. 

4  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  213. 


4  THE    CONFEDERATES. 

nobility ;  and  it  would  be  strange  indeed  if  they  were 
to  be  excluded  from  the  right  of  petition,  enjoyed  by 
the  humblest  individual.  In  the  course  of  the  debate, 
William  made  some  personal  allusions  to  his  own  situa- 
tion, delivering  himself  with  great  warmth.  His  ene- 
mies, he  said,  had  the  royal  ear,  and  would  persuade 
the  king  to  kill  him  and  confiscate  his  property.^  He 
was  even  looked  upon  as  the  head  of  the  confederacy. 
It  was  of  no  use  for  him  to  give  his  opinion  in  the 
council,  where  it  was  sure  to  be  misinterpreted.  All 
that  remained  for  him  was  to  ask  leave  to  resign  his 
offices  and  withdraw  to  his  estates.*  Count  Hoorne 
followed  in  much  the  same  key,  inveighing  bitterly 
against  the  ingratitude  of  Philip.  The  two  nobles 
yielded,  at  length,  so  far  to  Margaret's  remonstrances 
as  to  give  their  opinions  on  the  course  to  be  pursued. 
But  when  she  endeavored  to  recall  them  to  their  duty 
by  reminding  them  of  their  oaths  to  the  king,  they 
boldly  replied,  they  would  willingly  lay  down  their  lives 
for  their  country,  but  would  never  draw  sword  for  the 
edicts  or  the  Inquisition. '  William's  views  in  regard 
to  the  admission  of  the  confederates  into  Brussels  were 
supported  by  much  the  greater  part  of  the  assembly, 
and  finally  prevailed  with  the.  regent. 

On  the  third  of  April,  1566,  two  hundred  of  the 

s  "  Homines  genti  Nassavice  infensissimos  de  nece  ipsius,  deque 
fortunarum  omnium  publicatione  agitavisse  cum  Rege."  Vander 
Haer,  De  Initiis  Tumultuum,  p.  215.  See  also  Correspondance  de 
Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  403. 

fi  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii.  p.  404. 

7  "  lis  rcpondirent  qu'ils  ne  voulaient  pas  se  battre  pour  le  main- 
tien  de  I'inquisition  et  des  placards,  mais  qu'ils  le  feraient  pour  la 
conservation  du  pays."     Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


THE  PETITION.  5 

confederates  entered  the  gates  of  Brussels.  They  were 
on  horseback,  and  each  man  was  furnislicd  with  a  brace 
of  pistols  in  his  holsters,  wearing  in  other  resjoects  only 
the  usual  arms  of  a  private  gentlemen.  The  Viscount 
Brederode  and  Louis  of  Nassau  rode  at  their  head.^ 
They  prudently  conformed  to  William's  advice,  not  to 
bring  any  foreigners  in  their  train,  and  to  enter  the  city 
quietly,  without  attempting  to  stir  the  populace  by  any 
military  display,  or  the  report  of  fire-arms.'  Their 
coming  was  welcomed  with  general  joy  by  the  inhabit- 
ants, who  greeted  them  as  a  band  of  patriots  ready  to 
do  battle  for  the  liberties  of  their  country.  They 
easily  found  quarters  in  the  houses  of  the  principal 
citizens  j  and  Louis  and  Brederode  were  lodged  in  the 
mansion  of  the  prince  of  Orange." 

On  the  following  day  a  meeting  of  the  confederates 
was  held  at  the  hotel  of  Count  Culemborg,  where  they 
listened  to  a  letter  which  Brederode  had  just  received 
from  Spain,  informing  him  of  the  death  of  Morone,  a 
Flemish  nobleman  well  known  to  them  all,  who  had 
perished  in  the  flames  of  the  Inquisition."  With  feel- 
ings exasperated  by  this  gloomy  recital,  they  renewed, 
in  the  most  solemn  manner,  their  oaths  of  fidelity  to 
the  league.  An  application  was  then  made  to  Margaret 
for  leave  to  lay  their  petition  before  her.  The  day 
following  was  assigned  for  the  act ;  and  at  noon,  on 

8  "  Eo  ipso  die  sub  vesperam  conjurati  Bnixellas  advenere.  Erant 
illi  in  equis  omnino  ducenti,  forensi  veste  omati,  gestabantque  singuli 
bina  ante  ephippium  sclopeta,  prseibat  ductor  Brederodius,  juxthque 
Ludovicus  Nassavius."     Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  221. 

9  Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  torn.  ii.  pp.  74,  75, 
'°  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  221. 

"  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 

I* 


6  THE   CONFEDERATES. 

the  fifth  of  April,  the  whole  company  walked  in  solemn 
procession  through  the  streets  of  Brussels  to  the  palace 
of  the  regent.  She  received  them,  surrounded  by  the 
lords,  in  the  great  hall  adjoining  the  council-chamber. 
As  they  defiled  before  her,  the  confederates  ranged  them- 
selves along  the  sides  of  the  apartment.  Margaret  seems 
to  have  been  somewhat  disconcerted  by  the  presence  of  so 
martial  an  array  within  the  walls  of  her  palace.  But  she 
soon  recovered  herself,  and  received  them  graciously." 
Brederode  was  selected  to  present  the  petition,  and 
he  prefaced  it  by  a  short  address.  They  had  come  in 
such  numbers,  he  said,  the  better  to  show  their  respect 
to  the  regent,  and  the  deep  interest  they  took  in  the 
cause.  They  had  been  accused  of  opening  a  corre- 
spondence with  foreign  princes,  which  he  affirmed  to 
be  a  malicious  slander,  and  boldly  demanded  to  be 
confronted  with  the  authors  of  it.'^  Notwithstanding 
this  stout  denial,  it  is  very  possible  the  audience  did 
not  place  implicit  confidence  in  the  assertions  of  the 
speaker.  He  then  presented  the  petition  to  the  regent, 
expressing  the  hope  that  she  would  approve  of  it,  as 
dictated  only  by  their  desire  to  promote  the  glory  of 
the  king  and  the  good  of  the  country.  If  this  was  its 
object,  Margaret  replied,  she  doubted  not  she  should 
be  content  with  it."*  The  following  day  was  named 
for  them  again  to  wait  on  her  and  receive  her  answer. 

»*  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  pp.  222,  226. — Vandervynckt, 
Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  p.  138. — Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Ba.s, 
fol.  40. 

'3  "  Nobiles  enixi  earn  rogare,  ut  proferat  nomina  eorum  qui  lioc 
detulere:  cogatque  illos  accusationem  legitime  ac  palim  adomare." 
Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  toin.  i.  p.  222. 

M  "  Quando  nonnisi  Regis  dignitatem,  patrireque  salutem  specta- 
bant,  liaud  dubi^  postulatis  satisfacturam."     Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


THE   PETITION.  7 

The  instrument  began  with  a  general  statement  of  the 
distresses  of  the  land,  much  like  that  in  the  Compro- 
mise, but  couched  in  more  respectful  language.  The 
petitioners  had  hoped  that  the  action  of  the  great 
lords,  or  of  the  states-general,  would  have  led  to  some 
reform.  But  finding  these  had  not  moved  in  the 
matter,  while  the  evil  went  on  increasing  from  day  to 
da)',  until  ruin  was  at  the  gate,  they  had  come  to 
beseech  her  highness  to  lay  the  subject  herself  before 
the  king,  and  implore  his  majesty  to  save  the  country 
from  perdition  by  the  instant  abolition  of  both  the 
Inquisition  and  the  edicts.  Far  from  wishing  to  dic- 
tate laws  to  their  sovereign,  they  humbly  besought  her 
to  urge  on  him  the  necessity  of  convoking  the  states- 
general  and  devising  with  them  some  effectual  remedy 
for  the  existing  evils.  Meanwhile  they  begged  of  her 
to  suspend  the  further  execution  of  the  laws  in  regard 
to  religion  until  his  majesty's  pleasure  could  be  known. 
If  their  prayer  were  not  granted,  they  at  least  were 
absolved  from  all  responsibility  as  to  the  consequences, 
now  that  they  had  done  their  duty  as  true  and  loyal 
subjects.*^  The  business-like  character  of  this  docu- 
ment forms  a  contrast  to  the  declamatory  style  of  the 
Compromise;  and  in  its  temperate  tone,  particularly, 
we  may  fancy  we  recognize  the  touches  of  the  more 
prudent  hand  of  the  prince  of  Orange. 

On  the  sixth,  the  confederates  again  assembled  in  the 
l>alace  of  the  regent,  to  receive  her  answer.  They  were 
in  greater  force  than  before,  having  been  joined  by  a 

'3  The  copy  of  this  document  given  by  Green  is  from  tlie  papers  of 
Count  Louis  of  Nassau,  Archives  de  la  Maison  d' Orange-Nassau 
tom.  ii.  pp.  80-84. 


8  THE   CONFEDERATES. 

hundred  and  fifty  of  their  brethren,  who  had  entered 
the  city  the  night  previous,  under  the  command  of 
Counts  Culemborg  and  Berg.  They  were  received  by 
Margaret  in  the  same  courteous  manner  as  on  the 
preceding  day,  and  her  answer  was  made  to  them  in 
writing,  being  indorsed  on  their  own  petition. 

She  announced  in  it  her  purpose  of  using  all  her 
influence  with  her  royal  brother  to  persuade  him  to 
accede  to  their  wishes.  They  might  rely  on  his  doing 
all  that  was  conformable  to  his  natural  and  accustomed 
benignity. ^^  She  had  herself,  with  the  advice  of  her 
council  and  the  knights  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  prepared 
a  scheme  for  moderating  the  edicts,  to  be  laid  before  his 
majesty,  which  she  trusted  would  satisfy  the  nation. 
They  must,  however,  be  aware  that  she  herself  had  no 
power  to  suspend  the  execution  of  the  laws.  But  she 
would  send  instructions  to  the  inquisitors  to  proceed 
with  all  discretion  in  the  exercise  of  their  functions, 
until  they  should  learn  the  king's  pleasure.'^  She 
trusted  that  the  confederates  would  so  demean  them- 
selves as  not  to  make  it  necessary  to  give  different 
orders.  All  this  she  had  done  with  the  greater  readi- 
ness, from  her  conviction  that  they  had  no  design  to 
make  any  innovation  in  the  established  religion  of  the 
country,  but  desired  rather  to  uphold  it  in  all  its  vigor. 

»6  "  Lesquels  ne  doibvent  esperer,  sinon  toute  chose  digne  et  con- 
forme  k  sa  benignite  7iaifve  ct  accoustumee."  Archives  de  la  Maison 
d'Orange-Nassau,  torn.  ii.  p.  84. — The  phrase  must  have  sounded 
oddly  enough  in  the  ears  of  the  confederates. 

17  "  Pendant  que  s'attend  sa  responce,  Son  Alteze  donncra  ordre, 
que  tant  par  les  inquisiteurs,  ou  il  y  en  a  eu  jusques  ores,  que  par  les 
officicrs  respectivement,  soit  proced^  diicr^tement  et  modestement." 
Ibid.,  p.  85. 


THE  PETiriON.  9 

To  this  reply,  as  gracious  in  its  expressions,  and  as 
favorable  in  its  import,  as  the  league  could  possibly 
have  expected,  they  made  a  formal  answer  in  writing, 
which  they  presented  in  a  body  to  the  duchess  on  the 
eighth  of  the  month.  They  humbly  thanked  her ^ for 
the  prompt  attention  she  had  given  to  their  petition, 
but  would  have  been  still  more  contented  if  her  answer 
had  been  more  full  and  explicit.  They  knew  the 
embarrassments  under  which  she  labored,  and  they 
thanked  her  for  the  assurance  she  had  given — which, 
it  may  be  remarked,  she  never  did  give — that  all  pro- 
ceedings connected  with  the  Inquisition  and  the  edicts 
should  be  stayed  until  his  majesty's  pleasure  should  be 
ascertained.  They  were  most  anxious  to  conform  to 
whatever  the  king,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
states-general,  duly  assembled,  should  determine  in 
matters  of  religion ;  '^  and  they  would  show  their 
obedience  by  taking  such  order  for  their  own  conduct 
as  should  give  entire  satisfaction  to  her  highness. 

To  this  the  duchess  briefly  replied,  that  if  there  were 
any  cause  for  offence  hereafter  it  would  be  chargeable 
not  on  her,  but  on  them.  She  prayed  the  confederates 
henceforth  to  desist  from  their  secret  practices,  and  to 
invite  no  new  member  to  join  their  body.'' 

This  brief  and  admonitory  reply  seems  not  to  have 
been  to  the  taste  of  the  petitioners,  who  would  willingly 
have  drawn  from  Margaret  some  expression  that  might 

«8  "  Ne  desirons  sinon  d'ensuyvre  tout  ce  que  par  Sa  Ma'^-  avecq 
I'advis  et  consentement  des  estatsgeneraulx  assamblez  serat  ordonn^ 
pour  le  maintenement  de  I'anchienne  religion."  Archives  de  la  Maison 
d'Orange-Nassau,  torn.  ii.  p.  86. 

*9  "  Vous  prians  de  ne  passer  plus  avant  par  petites  practicques  se- 
cretes et  de  n'attirer  plus  personne."     Ibid.,  p.  88. 
A*. 


lo  THE   CONFEDERATES. 

be  construed  into  a  sanction  of  their  proceedings.  After 
a  short  deliberation  among  themselves,  they  again  ad- 
dressed her  by  the  mouth  of  one  of  their  own  number, 
the  lord  of  Kerdes.  The  speaker,  after  again  humbly 
thanking  the  regent  for  her  favorable  answer,  said  that 
it  would  have  given  still  greater  satisfaction  to  his  asso- 
ciates if  she  would  but  have  declared,  in  the  presence 
of  the  great  lords  assembled,  that  she  took  the  union 
of  the  confederates  in  good  part  and  for  the  service  of 
the  king ;  ="  and  he  concluded  with  promising  that  they 
would  henceforth  do  all  in  their  power  to  give  content- 
ment to  her  highness. 

To  all  this  the  duchess  simply  replied,  she  had  no 
doubt  of  it.  When  again  pressed  by  the  persevering 
deputy  to  express  her  opinion  of  this  assembly,  she 
bluntly  answered,  she  could  form  no  judgment  in  the 
matter."  She  gave  pretty  clear  evidence,  however,  of 
her  real  opinion,  soon  after,  by  dismissing  the  three 
gentlemen  of  her  household  whom  we  have  mentioned 
as  having  joined  the  league." 

=°  "  De  bonne  part  et  pour  le  service  du  Roy."  Archives  de  la 
Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  torn.  ii.  p.  89. 

='  "  Et  comme  ma  dite  dame  respondit  qu'elle  le  croyt  ainsy, 
n'affermant  nullement  en  quelle  part  elle  recevoit  nostre  assemblee, 
luy  fut  replicque  par  le  dit  S''-  de  Kerdes :  Madame,  11  plairast  h.  V. 
A.  en  dire  ce  qu'elle  en  sent,  ^  quoy  elle  respondit  qu'elle  ne  pouvoit 
juger."  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. — See  also  Strada  (De  Bello  Belgico,  tom.  i. 
p.  225),  who,  however,  despatches  this  interview  with  the  Seigneur  de 
Kerdes  in  a  couple  of  sentences. 

^  Cotmt  Louis  drew  up  a  petition  to  the  duchess,  or  rather  a  re- 
monstrance, requesting  lier  to  state  the  motives  of  this  act,  that  people 
might  not  interpret  it  into  a  condemnation  of  their  proceedings.  To 
this  Margaret  replied,  with  some  spirit,  that  it  was  her  own  private 
affair,  and  she  claimed  the  right  that  belonged  to  every  other  indi- 
vidual, of  managing  her  own  household  in  her  own  way. — One  will 


THE   PETITION.  n 

As  Margaret  found  that  the  confederates  were  not 
altogether  satisfied  with  her  response  to  their  petition, 
she  allowed  Count  Hoogstraten,  one  of  her  councillors, 
to  inform  some  of  them,  privately,  that  she,  had  already 
written  to  the  provinces  to  liave  all  jDrocesses  in  affairs 
of  religion  stayed  until  Philip's  decision  should  \>q 
known.  To  leave  no  room  for  distrust,  the  count  was 
allowed  to  show  them  copies  of  the  letters. "^^ 

The  week  spent  by  the  league  in  Brussels  was  a  season 
of  general  jubilee.  At  one  of  the  banquets  given  at 
Culemborg  House,  where  three  hundred  confederates 
were  present,  Brederode  presided.  During  the  repast 
he  related  to  some  of  the  company,  who  had  arrived 
on  the  day  after  the  petition  was  delivered,  the  manner 
in  which  it  had  been  received  by  the  duchess.  She 
seemed  at  first  disconcerted,  he  said,  by  the  number 
of  the  confederates,  but  was  reassured  by  Barlaimont, 
who  told  her  "they  were  nothing  but  a  crowd  of  beg- 
gars."-'' This  greatly  incensed  some  of  the  company, 
— ^Avith  whom,  probably,  it  was  too  true  for  a  jest.  But 
Brederode,  taking  it  more  good-humoredly,  said  that 
he  and  his  friends  had  no  objection  to  the  name,  since 
they  were  ready  at  any  time  to  become  beggars  for  the 
service   of  their  king  and   country. ^^    .This   sally  Avas 

readily  believe  that  Louis  did  not  act  by  the  advice  of  his  brother  in 
this  matter.  See  the  correspondence  as  collected  by  the  diligent 
Groen,  Archives  de  la  Maison  d' Orange-Nassau,  torn.  ii.  pp.  100-105. 

23  Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  41. 

*4  "  Ilium  quidem,  ut  Gubernatricis  animum  firmaret,  italocutum, 
quasi  nihil  ei  k  mendicis  ac  nebulonibus  pertimescendum  esset." 
Strada,  De  Bcllo  Belgico,  tom.  i.  p.  226. 

=5  "  Se  vero  libenter  appellationem  illam,  quce  ea  cumque  esset, 
accipere,  ac  Regis  patriajque  causa  Gheusios  se  mendicosque  re  ipsa 
futures."     Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


12  THE   CONFEDERATES. 

received  with  great  applause  by  the  guests,  who,  as 
they  drank  to  one  another,  shouted  forth,  "  Vivent  les 
Gueux  /" — "  Long  live  the  beggars  !" 

Brederode,  finding  the  jest  took  so  well, — an  event, 
indeed,  for  which  he  seems  to  have  .been  prepared, — 
left  the  room,  and  soon  returned  with  a  beggar's  wallet, 
and  a  wooden  bowl,  such  as  was  used  by  the  mendicant 
fraternity  in  the  Netherlands.  Then,  pledging  the  com- 
pany in  a  bumper,  he  swore  to  devote  his  life  and  fortune 
to  the  cause.  The  wallet  and  the  bowl  went  round  the 
table ;  and,  as  each  of  the  merry  guests  drank  in  turn 
to  his  confederates,  the  shout  arose  of  "  Vivent  les 
Gueux!''''  until  the  hall  rang  with  the  mirth  of  the 
revellers.^ 

It  happened  that  at  the  time  the  prince  of  Orange 
and  the  Counts  Egmont  and  Hoorne  were  passing  by 
on  their  way  to  the  council.  Their  attention  was  at- 
tracted by  the  noise,  and  they  paused  a  moment,  when 
William,  who  knew  well  the  temper  of  the  jovial  com- 
pany, proposed  that  they  should  go  in  and  endeavor  to 
break  up  their  revels.  "We  may  have  some  business 
of  the  council  to  transact  with  these  men  this  evening," 
he  said,  "and  at  this  rate  they  will  hardly  be  in  a  con- 
dition for  it."  The  appearance  of  the  three  nobles 
gave  a  fresh  impulse  to  the  boisterous  merriment  of 
the  company;  and  as  the  new-comers  pledged  their 
friends  in  the  wine-cup,  it  was  received  with  the  same 
thundering   acclamations   of   "Vivent  les    Gueux P^"^ 

=*  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  ubi  supra. — Vander  Haer,  De  Initiis 
TumuUuum,  p.  2H. — Corrcspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  149. 
— Vandervynckf,  Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  p.  142,  etseq. — This 
last  author  tells  the  story  with  uncommon  animation. 

=7  So  says  Strada.     (De  Bcllo  Belgico,  torn.  ii.  p.  227.)     But  the 


THE    GUEUX. 


13 


This  incident,  of  so  little  importance  in  itself,  was 
afterwards  made  of  consequence  by  the  turn  that  was 
given  to  it  in  the  prosecution  of  the  two  unfortunate 
noblemen  who  accompanied  the  prince  of  Orange. 

Every  one  knows  the  importance  of  a  popular  name 
to  a  faction, — a  nom  de  guerre,  under  which  its  mem- 
bers may  rally  and  make  head  together  as  an  independ- 
ent party.  Such  the  name  of  "  Giceux'''  now  became 
to  the  confederates.  It  soon  was  understood  to  signify 
those  who  were  opposed  to  the  government,  and,  in  a 
wider  sense,  to  the  Roman  Catholic  religion.  In  every 
language  in  which  the  history  of  these  acts  has  been 
recorded, — the  Latin,  German,  Spanish,  or  English, — • 
the  French  term  Gueux  is  ever  employed  to  designate 
this  party  of  malecontents  in  the  Netherlands.^ 

It  now  became  common  to  follow  out  the  original 
idea  by  imitations  of  the  different  articles  used  by 
mendicants.  Staffs  were  procured,  after  the  fashion  of 
those  in  the  hands  of  the  pilgrims,  but  more  elaborately 
carved.  Wooden  bowls,  spoons,  and  knives  became  in 
great  request,  though  richly  inlaid  with  silver,  accord- 
duchess,  in  a  letter  written  in  cipher  to  the  king,  tells  him  that  the 
three  lords  pledged  the  company  in  the  same  toast  of  "  Vivent  les 
Gueux  /"  that  had  been  going  the  rounds  of  the  table.  "  Le  prince 
d'Oranges  et  les  comtes  d'Egmont  et  de  Homes  vinrent  h.  la  maison 
de  Culembourg  apres  le  diner;  ils  burent  avec  les  confederes,  et 
cri^rent  aussi  vivent  les  gueux !"  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II., 
torn.  i.  p.  409. 

28  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  227. — ^Vandervynckt,  Troubles 
des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  p.  143. — The  word  gueux  is  derived  by  Vander 
Haer  from  Goth,  in  the  old  German  form,  Geute :  "  Eandem  esse  earn 
vocem  gallicam  qure  esset  Teutonum  vox,  Geuten,  quam  maiores  vei 
Gothis  genti  Barbarse  tribuissent,  vel  odio  Gothici  nominis  conviciuin 
fecissent."  De  Tnitiis  Tumultuum  p.  212. 
Philip.— Vol.  II.  2 


14  THE   CONFEDERATES. 

ing  to  the  fancy  or  wealth  of  the  possessor.  Medals 
resembling  those  stuck  by  the  beggars  in  their  bonnets 
were  worn  as  a  badge;  and  the  "  Gueux  penny,"  as  it 
was  called, — a  gold  or  silver  coin, — was  hung  from  the 
neck,  bearing  on  one  side  the  effigy  of  Philip,  with 
the  inscription,  ^^ Fideles  au  roi;'''  and  on  the  other, 
two  hands  grasping  a  beggar's  wallet,  with  the  further 
legend,  "Jiisques  a  porter  la  besace  ;^ ' — "Faithful  to  the 
king,  even  to  carrying  the  wallet."  ^^  Even  the  garments 
of  the  mendicant  were  affected  by  the  confederates, 
who  used  them  as  a  substitute  for  their  family  liveries ; 
and  troops  of  their  retainers,  clad  in  the  ash-gray  habil- 
iments of  the  begging  friars,  might  be  seen  in  the  streets 
of  Brussels  and  the  other  cities  of  the  Netherlands. 3° 

On  the  tenth  of  April,  the  confederates  quitted 
Brussels,  in  the  orderly  manner  in  which  they  had 
entered  it ;  except  that,  on  issuing  from  the  gate,  they 
announced  their  departure  by  firing  a  salute  in  honor 
of  the  city  which  had  given  them  so  hospitable  a  Avel- 
come.3'  Their  visit  to  Brussels  had  not  only  created  a 
great  sensation  in  the  capital  itself,  but  throughout  the 
country.     Hitherto  the  league  had  worked  in  darkness, 

=^  Vander  Haer,  De  Initiis  Tumultuum,  loc.  cit. — Strada,  De  Bello 
Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  228. — Arend,  in  his  Algemeene  Geschiedenis  des 
Vadeilands,  has  given  engravings  of  these  medals,  on  which  the  de- 
vices and  inscriptions  v^'ere  not  always  precisely  the  same.  Some  of 
these  mendicant  paraphernalia  are  still  to  be  found  in  ancient  cabi- 
nets in  the  Low  Countries,  or  were  in  the  time  of  Vandervynckt. 
See  his  Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  p.  143. 

30  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  tom.  i.  p.  228. — Vander  Haer,  De 
Initiis  Tumultuum,  p.  212. 

31  "  En  sortant  de  la  porte  de  la  ville,  ils  ont  fait  une  grande 
d^charge  de  leurs  pistolets."  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  tom. 
i,  p.  408. 


THE    GUEUX.  15 

as  it  were,  like  a  band  of  secret  conspirators.  But  they 
had  now  come  forward  into  the  light  of  day,  boldly 
presenting  themselves  before  the  regent,  and  demand- 
ing redress  of  the  wrongs  under  which  the  nation  was 
groaning.  The  people  took  heart,  as  they  saw  this 
broad  aegis  extended  over  them  to  ward  off  the  assaults 
of  arbitrary  power.  Their  hopes  grew  stronger,  as  they 
became  assured  of  the  interposition  of  the  regent  and 
the  great  lords  in  their  favor ;  and  they  could  hardly 
doubt  that  the  voice  of  the  country,  backed  as  it  was 
by  that  of  the  government,  would  make  itself  heard  at 
Madrid,  and  that  Philip  would  at  length  be  compelled 
to  abandon  a  policy  which  menaced  him  with  the  loss 
of  the  fairest  of  his  provinces.  They  had  yet  to  learn 
the  character  of  their  sovereign. 


CHAPTER    XL 

FREEDOM   OF   WORSHIP. 

The  Edicts  suspended. — The  Sectaries. — The  Public  Preachings. — 
Attempt  to  suppress  them. — Meeting  at  St.  Trond. — Philip's  Con- 
cessions. 

1566. 

On  quitting  Brussels,  the  confederates  left  there  four 
of  their  number  as  a  sort  of  committee  to  watch  over 
the  interests  of  the  league.  The  greater  part  of  the 
remainder,  with  Brederode  at  their  head,  took  the  road 
to  Antwerp.  They  were  hardly  established  in  their 
quarters  in  that  city  when  the  building  was  surrounded 
by  thousands  of  the  inhabitants,  eager  to  give  their 
visitors  a  tumultuous  welcome.  Brederode  came  out 
on  the  balcony,  and,  addressing  the  crowd,  told  them 
that  he  had  come  there,  at  the  hazard  of  his  life,  to 
rescue  them  from  the  miseries  of  the  Inquisition.  He 
called  on  his  audience  to  take  him  as  their  leader  in 
this  glorious  work ;  and  as  the  doughty  champion 
pledged  them  in  a  goblet  of  wine  which  he  had 
brought  with  him  from  the  table,  the  mob  answered 
by  such  a  general  shout  as  was  heard  in  the  farthest 
corners  of  the  city.'    Thus  a  relation  was  openly  estab- 

I  "  Vos  si  mecum  in  hoc  preclaro  opere  consentitis,  agite,  et  qui 

vestrum  salvam  libertatem,  me  duce  volent,  propinatum  hoc  sibi  po- 

culum,  bencvolentice  mcas  significationem  genialiter  accipiant,  idque 

manus  indicio  contestentur."   Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  231. 

(16) 


THE  EDICTS  SUSPENDED. 


17 


lished  between  the  confederates  and  the  people,  who 
were  to  move  forward  together  in  the  great  march  of 
the  revolution. 

Soon  after  the  departure  of  the  confederates  from 
Brussels,  the  regent  despatched  an  embassy  to  Madrid 
to  acquaint  tlie  king  with  the  recent  proceedings  and  to 
urge  his  acquiescence  in  the  reforms  solicited  by  the 
league.  The  envoys  chosen  were  the  baron  de  Mon- 
tigny — who  had  taken  charge,  it  may  be  remembered, 
of  a  similar  mission  before — and  the  marquis  of  Bergen, 
a  nobleman  of  liberal  principles,  but  who  stood  high 
in  the  regard  of  the  regent. ""  Neither  of  the  parties 
showed  any  alacrity  to  undertake  a  commission  which 
was  to  bring  them  so  closely  in  contact  with  the  dread 
monarch  in  his  capital.  Bergen  found  an  apology  for 
some  time  in  a  wound  from  a  tennis-ball,  which  dis- 
abled his  leg ;  an  ominous  accident,  interpreted  by  the 
chroniclers  of  the  time  into  an  intimation  from  Heaven 
of  the  disastrous  issue  of  the  mission. ^  Montigny 
reached  Madrid  some  time  before  his  companion,  mi 
the  seventeenth  of  June,  and  met  with  a  gracious  re- 
ception from  Philip,  who  listened  with  a  benignant  air 
to  the  recital  of  the  measures  suggested  for  the  relief 
of  the  country,  terminating,  as  usual,  with  an  applica- 
tion for  a  summons  of  the  states-general,  as  the  most 

=»  "Estans  mesmes  personnages  si  prudes,  discrets  et  tant  imbus  de 
tout  ce  que  convient  remonstrer  a  V.  M.,  outre  I'affection  que  j'ay 
toujours  trouve  en  eux,  tant  adonnez  au  service  d'icelle."  Corre- 
spondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  24. 

3  "  Crederes  id  ab  illius  accidisse  genio,  qui  non  contentus  admo- 
nendo  aurem  ei  vellicasse,  nunc  quasi  compedibus  injectis,  ne  infaus- 
tum  iter  ingrederetur,  attineret  pedes."  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn. 
i-  P-  235. 

2* 


1 8  FREEDOM  OF   WORSHIP. 

effectual  remedy  for  the  disorders.  But,  although  the 
envoy  was  admitted  to  more  than  one  audience,  he 
obtained  no  more  comfortable  assurance  than  that  the 
subject  should  receive  the  most  serious  consideration 
of  his  majesty.* 

Meanwhile  the  regent  was  busy  in  digesting  the  plan 
of  compromise  to  which  she  had  alluded  in  her  reply 
to  the  confederates.  When  concluded,  it  was  sent  to 
the  governors  of  the  several  provinces,  to  be  laid  before 
their  respective  legislatures.  Their  sanction,  it  was 
hoped,  would  recommend  its  adoption  to  the  people  at 
large.  It  was  first  submitte(i  to  some  of  the  smaller 
states,  as  Artois,  Namur,  and  Luxemburg,  as  most 
likely  to  prove  subservient  to  the  wishes  of  the  govern- 
ment. It  was  then  laid  before  several  of  the  larger 
states,  as  Brabant  and  Flanders,  whose  determination 
might  be  influenced  by  the  example  of  the  others. 
Holland,  Zealand,  Utrecht,  and  one  or  two  other  prov- 
inces, where  the  spirit  of  independence  was  highest, 
were  not  consulted  at  all.  Yet  this  politic  manage- 
ment did  not  entirely  succeed  ;  and  although  some  few 
gave  an  unconditional  assent,  most  of  the  provinces 
coupled  their  acquiescence  with  limitations  that  ren- 
dered it  of  little  worth. 5 

This  was  not  extraordinary.  The  scheme  was  one 
which,  however  large  the  concessions  it  involved  on  the 
part  of  the  government,  fell  far  short  of  those  demanded 

4  "  Les  seules  reponses  qu'il  ait  obtenues  de  S.  M.,  sont  qu'elle  y 
pensera,  que  ces  affaires  sont  de  grande  importance,  etc."  Corre- 
spondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  426. 

5  Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  41. — Hopper,  Recueil  et  Me- 
morial, p.  78. — Vander  Haer,  De  Initiis  Tumultuum,  p.  216. 


THE  EDICTS  SUSPENDED. 


19 


by  the  people.  It  denounced  the  penalty  of  death  on 
all  ministers  and  teachers  of  the  reformed  religion,  and 
all  who  harbored  them  ;  and,  while  it  greatly  mitigated 
the  punishment  of  other  offenders,  its  few  sanguinary 
features  led  the  people  sneeringly  to  call  it,  instead  of 
"moderation,"  the  act  of  ^'inurderatio7i."^  It  fared, 
indeed,  with  this  compromise  of  the  regent  as  with 
most  other  half-way  measures.  It  satisfied  neither  of 
the  parties  concerned  in  it.  The  king  thought  it  as 
much  too  lenient  as  the  people  thought  it  too  severe. 
It  never  received  the  royal  sanction,  and  of  course 
never  became  a  law.  It  would  therefore  hardly  have 
deserved  the  time  I  have  bestowed  on  it,  except  as 
evidence  of  the  conciliatory  spirit  of  the  regent's  ad- 
ministration. 

In  the  same  spirit  Margaret  was  careful  to  urge  the 
royal  officers  to  give  a  liberal  interpretation  to  the 
existing  edicts,  and  to  show  the  utmost  discretion  in 
their  execution.  These  functionaries  were  not  slow  in 
obeying  commands  which  released  them  from  so  much 
of  the  odium  that  attached  to  their  ungrateful  office. 
The  amiable  temper  of  the  government  received  sup- 
port from  a  singular  fraud  which  took  place  at  this 
time.  An  instrument  was  prepared  purporting  to  have 
come  from  the  knights  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  in  which 
this  body  guaranteed  to  the  confederates  that  no  one  in 
the  Low  Countries  should  be  molested  on  account  of 
his  religion  until  otherwise  determined  by  the  king  and 
the  states-general.  This  document,  which  carried  its 
spurious  origin  on  its  face,  was  nevertheless  eagerly 

fi  "  Ceste  moderation,  que  le  coinun  peuple  apelloit  meurderation." 
Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  41. 


*o  FREEDOM  OF   WORSHIP. 

caught  up  and  circulated  among  the  people,  ready  to 
believe  what  they  most  desired.  In  vain  the  regent,  as 
soon  as  she  heard  of  it,  endeavored  to  expose  the  fraud. 
It  was  too  late ;  and  the  influence  of  this  imposture 
combined  with  the  tolerant  measures  of  the  government 
to  insi:)ire  a  confidence  in  the  community  which  was 
soon  visible  in  its  results.  Some  who  had  gone  into 
exile  returned  to  their  country.  Many  who  had  cher- 
ished the  new  doctrines  in  secret  openly  avowed  them; 
while  others  who -were  wavering,  now  that  they  were 
relieved  from  all  fear  of  consequences,  became  fixed 
in  their  opinions.  In  short,  the  Reformation,  in  some 
form  or  other,  was  making  rapid  advances  over  the 
country.  7 

Of  the  three  great  sects  who  embraced  it,  the  Luther- 
ans, the  least  numerous,  were  the  most  eminent  for 
their  rank.  The  AnabajDtists,  far  exceeding  them  in 
number,  were  drawn  almost  wholly  from  the  humbler 
classes  of  the  people.  It  is  singular  that  this  sect,  the 
most  quiet  and  inoffensive  of  all,  should  have  been 
uniformly  dealt  with  by  the  law  with  peculiar  rigor. 
It  may  perhaps  be  attributed  to  the  bad  name  which 
attached  to  them  from  the  excesses  committed  by  their 
brethren,  the  famous  Anabaptists  of  Munster.  The 
third  denomination,  the  Calvinists,  far  outnumbered 
both  of  the  other  two.  They  were  also  the  most  active 
in  the  spirit  of  proselytism.  They  were  stimulated  by 
missionaries  trained  in  the  schools  of  Geneva;  and  as 

7  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  pp.  233,  234,  239. — Brandt, 
Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  vol.  i.  p.  170. — See  the  forged 
document  mentioned  in  the  text  in  the  Supplement  k  Strada,  torn.  ii. 
P-  330- 


THE   PUBLIC  PREACHINGS.  2 1 

tlieir  doctrines  spread  silently  over  the  land,  not  only 
men  of  piety  and  learning,  but  persons  of  the  highest 
social  position,  were  occasionally  drawn  within  the  folds 
of  the  sect. 

The  head-quarters  of  the  Calvinists  were  in  Flan- 
ders, Hainault,  Artois,  and  the  provinces  contiguous 
to  France.  The  border-land  became  the  residence  of 
French  Huguenots,  and  of  banished  Flemings,  who  on 
this  outpost  diligently  labored  in  the  cause  of  the 
Reformation.  The  press  teemed  with  publications, — 
vindications  of  the  faith,  polemical  tracts,  treatises, 
and  satires  against  the  Church  of  Rome  and  its  errors, 
— those  spiritual  missiles,  in  short,  which  form  the  usual 
magazine  for  controversial  warfare.  These  were  dis- 
tributed by  means  of  peddlers  and  travelling  tinkers, 
who  carried  them,  in  their  distant  wanderings,  to  the 
humblest  firesides  throughout  the  country.  There  they 
were  left  to  do  their  work ;  and  the  ground  was  thus 
prepared  for  the  laborers  whose  advent  forms  an  epoch 
in  the  history  of  the  Reformation.® 

These  were  the  ministers  or  missionaries,  whose  pub- 
lic preaching  soon  caused  a  great  sensation  throughout 
the  land.  They  first  made  their  appearance  in  West- 
ern Flanders,  before  small  audiences  gathered  together 
stealthily  in  the  gloom  of  the  forest  and  in  the  silence 
of  night.  They  gradually  emerged  into  the  open  plains, 
thence  proceeding  to  the  villages,  until,  growing  bolder 
with  impunity,  they  showed  themselves  in  the  suburbs 
of  the  great  towns  and  cities.      On  these  occasions, 

8  Vandervynckt,  Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  p.  150,  et  seq. — 
Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  pp.  239,  240. — Correspondance  de 
Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  127. 


2  2  FREEDOM  OF   WORSHIP. 

thousands  of  the  inhabitants,  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, in  too  great  force  for  the  magistrates  to  resist 
them,  poured  out  of  the  gates  to  hear  the  preacher. 
In  the  centre  of  the  ground  a  rude  staging  was  erected, 
with  an  awning  to  protect  him  from  the  weather.  Im- 
mediately round  this  rude  pulpit  was  gathered  the  more 
helpless  part  of  the  congregation,  the  women  and  chil- 
dren. Behind  them  stood  the  men, — those  in  the  outer 
circle  usually  furnished  with  arms, — swords,  pikes, 
muskets, — any  weapon  they  could  pick  up,  for  the 
occasion.  A  patrol  of  horse  occupied  the  ground 
beyond,  to  protect  the  assenibly  and  prevent  inter- 
ruption. A  barricade  of  wagons  and  other  vehicles 
was  thrown  across  the  avenues  that  led  to  the  place,  to 
defend  it  against  the  assaults  of  the  magistrates  or  the 
military.  Persons  stationed  along  the  high-roads  dis- 
tributed religious  tracts,  and  invited  the  passengers  to 
take  part  in  the  services.' 

The  preacher  was  frequently  some  converted  priest 
or  friar,  accustomed  to  speak  in  public,  who,  having 
passed  the  greater  part  of  his  life  in  battling  for  the 
Church,  now  showed  equal  zeal  in  overturning  it.  It 
might  be,  however,  that  the  orator  was  a  layman, — 
some  peasant  or  artisan,  who,  gifted  with  more  wit,  or 
possibly  more  effrontery,  than  his  neighbors,  felt  him- 
self called  on  to  assume  the  perilous  vocation  of  a 
preacher.  The  discourse  was  in  French  or  Flemish, 
whichever  might  be  the  language  spoken  in  the  neigh- 

9  Languet,  Epist.  seer.,  quoted  by  Groen,  Archives  de  la  Maison 
d'Orange-Nassau,  torn.  ii.  p.  i8o. — See  also  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico, 
torn.  i.  p.  241. — Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  torn.  i.  p. 

172. 


THE   PUBLIC  PREACHINGS.  23 

borhood.  It  was  generally  of  the  homely  texture  suited 
both  to  the  speaker  and  his  audience.  Yet  sometimes 
he  descanted  on  the  woes  of  the  land  with  a  pathos 
which  drew  tears  from  every  eye,  and  at  others  gave 
vent  to  a  torrent  of  fiery  eloquence  that  kindled  the 
spirit  of  the  ancient  martyr  in  the  bosoms  of  his 
hearers. 

These  lofty  flights  were  too  often  degraded  by  coarse 
and  scurrilous  invectives  against  the  pope,  the  clergy, 
and  the  Inquisition, — themes  pecviliarly  grateful  to  his 
audience,  who  testified  their  applause  by  as  noisy  dem- 
onstrations as  if  they  had  been  spectators  in  a  theatre. 
The  service  was  followed  by  singing  some  portion  of 
the  Psalms  in  the  French  version  of  Marot,  or  in  a 
Dutch  translation  which  had  recently  appea.red  in  Hol- 
land,'" and  which,  although  sufficiently  rude,  passed 
with  the  simple  people  for  a  wonderful  composition. 
After  this,  it  was  common  for  those  who  attended  to 
present  their  infants  for  baptism ;  and  many  couples 
profited  by  the  occasion  to  have  the  marriage-ceremony 
performed  with  the  Calvinistic  rites.  The  exercises 
were  concluded  by  a  collection  for  the  poor  of  their 
own  denomination.  In  fine,  these  meetings,  notwith- 
standing the  occasional  license  of  the  preacher,  seem 
to  have  been  conducted  with  a  seriousness  and  decorum 
which  hardly  merit  the  obloquy  thrown  on  them  by 
some  of  the  Catholic  writers. 

The  congregation,  it  is  true,  was  made  up  of  rather 
motley  materials.  Some  went  out  merely  to  learn  what 
manner  of  doctrine  it  was  that  was  taught ;  others,  to 
hear  the  singing,  where  thousands  of  voices  blended 

«>  Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  ubi  supra. 


24 


FREEDOM  OF   WORSHIP. 


together  in  rude  harmony  under  the  canopy  of  heaven ; 
others,  again,  witli  no  better  motive  than  amusement, 
to  laugh  at  the  oddity — perhaps  the  buffoonery — of  the 
preacher.  But  far  the  larger  portion  of  the  audience 
went  with  the  purpose  of  joining  in  the  religious  exer- 
cises and  worshipping  God  in  their  own  way."  We 
may  imagine  what  an  influence  must  have  been  exer- 
cised by  these  meetings,  where  so  many  were  gathered 
together,  under  a  sense  of  common  danger,  to  listen  to 
the  words  of  the  teacher,  who  taught  them  to  hold  all 
human  law  as  liglit  in  comparison  with  the  higher  law 
of  conscience  seated  in  their  own  bosoms.  Even  of 
those  who  came  to  scoff,  few  there  were,  probably,  who 
did  not  go  away  with  some  food  for  meditation,  or,  it 
may  be,  the  seeds  of  future  conversion  implanted  in 
their  breasts. 

The  first  of  these  public  preachings — which  began 
as  early  as  May — took  place  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Ghent.  Between  six  and  seven  thousand  persons  were 
assembled.  A  magistrate  of  the  city,  with  more  valor 
than  discretion,  mounted  his  horse,  and,  armed  with 
sword  and  pistol,  rode  in  among  the  multitude  and 
undertook  to  arrest  the  minister.  But  the  people 
hastened  to  his  rescue,  and  dealt  so  roughly  with  the 
unfortunate  officer  that  he  barely  escaped  with  life  from 
their  hands." 

From  Ghent  the  preachings  extended  to  Ypres,  Bru- 
ges, and  other  great  towns  of  Flanders, — always  in 
the  suburbs, — to  Valenciennes,  and  to  Tournay,  in  the 
province  of  Hainault,  where  the  Reformers  were  strong 

"  Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  torn.  i.  p.  173. 
"  Ibid.,  p.  171. 


THE  PUBLIC  PREACHINGS.  25 

enough  to  demand  a  place  of  worship  within  the  walls. 
Holland  was  ready  for  the  Word.  INIinisters  of  the  new 
religion,  as  it  was  called,  were  sent  both  to  that  quarter 
and  to  Zealand.  Gatherings  of  great  multitudes  were 
held  in  the  environs  of  Amsterdam,  the  Hague,  Haar- 
lem, and  other  large  towns,  at  which  the  magistrates 
were  sometimes  to  be  found  mingled  with  the  rest  of 
the  burghers. 

But  the  place  where  these  meetings  were  conducted 
on  the  greatest  scale  was  Antwerp,  a  city  containing 
then  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  and 
the  most  important  mart  for  commerce  in  the  Nether- 
lands. It  was  the  great  resort  of  foreigners.  Many 
of  these  were  Huguenots,  who,  under  the  pretext  of 
trade,  were  much  more  busy  with  the  concerns  of  their 
rdigion.  At  the  meetings  without  the  walls  it  was  not 
uncommon  for  thirteen  or  fourteen  thousand  persons  to 
assemble. '3  Resistance  on  the  part  of  the  magistrates 
was  ineffectual.  The  mob  got  possession  of  the  keys 
of  the  city;  and,  as  most  of  the  Calvinists  were  armed, 
they  constituted  a  formidable  force.  Conscious  of 
their  strength,  they  openly  escorted  their  ministers  back 
to  the  town,  and  loudly  demanded  that  some  place  of 
worship  should  be  appropriated  to  them  within  the  walls 
of  Antwerp.  The  quiet  burghers  became  alarmed.  As 
it  was  known  that  in  the  camp  of  the  Reformers  were 
many  reckless  and  disorderly  persons,  they  feared  the 
town  might  be  given  over  to  pillage.    All  trade  ceased. 

'3  "  Se  y  sont  le  dimanche  dernier  encoires  faict  deux  presches,  Tune 
en  fran9ois,  I'autre  en  flamand,  en  plein  jour,  et  estoient  ces  deux  as- 
semblees  de  13  k  14  mille  personnes."  Correspondance  de  Margue- 
rite d'Autriche,  p.  65. 

Philip. — Vol.  II. — b  3 


26  FREEDOM  OP   WORSHIP. 

Many  of  the  merchants  secreted  their  effects,  and  some 
prepared  to  make  their  escape  as  speedily  as  possible."^ 
Tlie  magistrates,  in  great  confusion,  applied  to  the 
regent,  and  besought  her  to  transfer  her  residence  to 
Antwerp,  where  her  presence  might  overawe  the  spirit 
of  sedition.  But  Margaret's  council  objected  to  he/' 
placing  herself  in  the  hands  of  so  factious  a  population ; 
and  she  answered  the  magistrates  by  inquiring  what 
guarantee  they  could  give  her  for  her  personal  safety. 
They  then  requested  that  the  prince  of  Orange,  who 
held  the  office  of  biirgrave  of  Antwerp,  and  whose  in- 
fluence with  the  people  was  unbounded,  might  be  sent 
to  them.  Margaret  hesitated  as  to  this;  for  she  had 
now  learned  to  regard  William  with  distrust,  as  as- 
suming more  and  more  an  unfriendly  attitude  towards 
her  brother. '5  But  she  had  no  alternative,  and  she 
requested  him  to  transfer  his  residence  to  the  disorderly 
capital  and  endeavor  to  restore  it  to  tranquillity.  The 
prince,  on  the  other  hand,  disgusted  with  the  course  of 
public  affairs,  had  long  wished  to  withdraw  from  any 
share  in  their  management.  It  was  with  reluctance  he 
accepted  the  commission. 

'4  Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  pp.  8o-S8. — Strada, 
De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  243. — Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol. 
42. — Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  433. — A  Confession  of 
Faith,  which  appeared  in  1563,  was  revised  by  a  Calvinistic  synod,  and 
reprinted  at  Antwerp,  in  May  of  the  present  year,  1566.  The  prefatory 
letter  addressed  to  King  Philip,  in  which  the  Reformers  appealed  to 
their  creed  and  to  their  general  conduct  as  affording  the  best  refuta- 
tion of  the  calumnies  of  their  enemies,  boldly  asserted  that  theii 
number  in  the  Netherlands  at  that  time  was  at  least  a  hundred  thou- 
sand.    Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  vol.  i.  p.  158. 

'5  "  La  Duquesa,  ya  demasiado  informada  de  las  platicas  inclina- 
ciones  y  disimulaciones  de  este  Principe,  defirio  d  resolverse  en  ello." 
Renom  de  Francia,  Alborotos  de  Flandes,  cap.  15,  MS. 


THE   PUBLIC  PREACHINGS.  27 

As  he  drew  near  to  Antwerp,  the  people  flocked  out 
by  thousands  to  welcome  him.  It  would  seem  as  if 
they  hailed  him  as  their  deliverer ;  and  every  window, 
veranda,  and  roof  was  crowded  with  spectators,  as  he 
rode  through  the  gates  of  the  capital."'^  The  people 
ran  up  and  down  the  streets,  singing  psalms,  or  shout- 
ing, "  Vivcnt  les  Gueux  f^  while  they  thronged  round 
the  prince's  horse  in  so  dense  a  mass  that  it  was  scarcely 
possible  for  him  to  force  a  passage.''  Yet  these  demon- 
strations of  his  popularity  were  not  altogether  satisfac- 
tory ;  and  he  felt  no  pleasure  at  being  thus  welcomed 
as  a  chief  of  the  league,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  he 
was  far  from  regarding  with  approbation.  Waving  his 
hand  repeatedly  to  those  around  him,  he  called  on  them 
to  disperse,  impatiently  exclaiming,  "Take  heed  what 
you  do,  or,  by  Heaven,  you  will  have  reason  to  rue  it."  '^ 
He  rode  straight  to  the  hall  where  the  magistrates  were 
sitting,  and  took  counsel  with  them  as  to  the  best  means 
of  allaying  the  popular  excitement,  and  of  preventing 
the  wealthy  burghers  from  quitting  the  city.  During 
the  few  weeks  he  remained  there,  the  prince  conducted 
affairs  so  discreetly  as  to  bring  about  a  better  under- 
standing between  the  authorities  and  the  citizens.  He 
even  prevailed  on  the  Calvinists  to  lay  aside  their  arms. 
He  found  more  difficulty  in  persuading  them  to  relin- 
quish the  design  of  appropriating  to  themselves  some 

"^  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  244. 

'7  A  mob  of  no  less  than  thirty  thousand  men,  according  to  Wil- 
liam's own  statement :  "  A  mon  semblant,  trouvis,  tant  hors  que 
dedans  la  ville,  plus  de  trente  mil  hommes."  Correspondance  de 
Guillaume  de  Taciturne,  torn.  ii.  p.  136. 

i8"Viderent,  per  Deum,  quid  agerent:  ne,  si  pergerent,  eos  ali- 
quando  poeniteret."     Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  244. 


28  FREEDOM  OF   WORSHIP. 

place  of  worship  within  the  walls.  It  was  not  till 
William  called  in  the  aid  of  the  military  to  support 
him  that  he  compelled  them  to  yield.'' 

Thus  the  spirit  of  reform  was  rapidly  advancing  in 
every  part  of  the  country, — even  in  presence  of  the 
court,  under  the  very  eye  of  the  regent.  In  Brussels 
the  people  went  through  the  streets  byjiight,  singing 
psalms,  and  shouting  the  war-cry  of  Vivetit  les  Gueux  ! 
The  merchants  and  wealthy  burghers  were  to  be  seen 
with  the  insignia  of  the  confederates  on  their  dress.^ 
Preparations  were  made  for  a  public  preaching  without 
the  walls ;  but  the  duchess  at  once  declared  that  in  that 
event  she  would  make  one  of  the  company  at  the  head 
of  her  guard,  seize  the  preacher,  and  hang  him  up  at 
the  gates  of  the  city  !  ^'  This  menace  had  the  desired 
effect. 

During  these  troublous  times,  Margaret,  however 
little  she  may  have  accomplished,  could  not  be  accused 
of  sleeping  on  her  post.  She  caused  fasts  to  be  observed, 
and  prayers  to  be  offered  in  all  the  churches,  to  avert 
the  wrath  of  Heaven  from  the  land.  She  did  not  con- 
fine herself  to  these  spiritual  weapons,  but  called  on 

'9  For  the  account  of  the  proceedings  at  Antwerp,  see  Correspon- 
dance  de  Guillaume  le  Tacitume,  torn.  ii.  pp.  136,  138,  140,  et  seq. — 
Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  pp.  244-248. — Meteren,  Hist,  des 
Pays-Bas,  fol.  42. — Hopper,  Recueil  et  Memorial,  pp.  90,91. — Brandt, 
Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  vol.  i.  pp.  173-176. — Renom  de 
Francia,  Alborotos  de  Flandes,  MS. 

=0  "  Insignia  etiam  k  mercatoribus  usurpari  coepta."  Strada,  De 
Bcllo  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  238. 

"  "  lis  auraient  preche  hors  de  Bru.xelles,  si  Madame  n'y  avait 
pourvu,  allant  jusqu'.\  dire  qu'avec  sa  personne,  sa  maison  et  sa  garde, 
elle  s'y  opposerait,  et  ferait  pendre  en  sa  presence  les  ministres." 
Correspondance  de  Philippe  H.,  torn.  i.  p.  447. 


ATTEMPT  TO  SUPPRESS  THE  PREACHINGS. 


29 


the  magistrates  of  the  towns  to  do  their  duty,  and  on 
all  good  citizens  to  support  them.  She  commanded 
foreigners  to  leave  Antwerp,  except  those  only  who 
were  there  for  traffic.  She  caused  placards  to  be  every- 
where posted  up,  reciting  the  terrible  penalties  of  the 
law  against  heretical  teachers  and  those  who  abetted 
them ;  and  she  offered  a  reward  of  six  hundred  florins 
to  whoever  should  bring  any  such  offender  to  punish- 
ment.^ She  strengthened  the  garrisoned  towns,  and 
would  have  levied  a  force  to  overawe  the  refractory ; 
but  she  had  not  the  funds  to  pay  for  it.  She  endeavored 
to  provide  these  by  means  of  loans  from  the  great  clergy 
and  the  principal  towns ;  but  with  indifferent  success. 
Most  of  them  were  already  creditors  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  they  liked  the  security  too  little  to  make 
further  advances.  In  her  extremity,  Margaret  had  no 
resource  but  the  one  so  often  tried, — that  of  invoking 
the  aid  of  her  brother.  "  I  have  no  refuge,"  she  wrote, 
"  but  in  God  and  your  majesty.  It  is  with  anguish  and 
dismay  I  must  admit  that  my  efforts  have  wholly  failed 
to  prevent  the  public  preaching,  which  has  spread  over 
every  quarter  of  the  country."^  She  bitterly  com- 
plains, in  another  letter,  that,  after  "so  many  pressing 
applications,  she  should  be  thus  left,  without  aid  and 

^  "  So  pena  de  proceder  contra  los  Predicadores  ministros  y  seme- 
jantes  con  el  ultimo  suplicio  y  confiscacion  de  hacienda  por  aplicarlo 
al  provecho  de  los  que  havian  la  aprehension  de  ellos  y  por  falta  de 
hacienda,  su  magestad  mandara  librar  del  suyo  seiscientos  florines." 
Renom  de  Francia,  Alborotos  de  Flandes,  MS. 

23  "  Je  suis  forcee  avecq  douleur  et  angoisse  d'esprit  lui  dire  de  re- 
chief  que  nonobstant  tous  les  debvoirs  que  je  fais  journellement,  .  .  .  je 
ne  puis  remedier  ny  empescher  les  assemblees  des  presches  pub- 
Licqiies."     Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  72. 

3* 


3° 


FREEDOM  OF   WORSHIP. 


without  instructions,  to  grope  her  way  at  random."^'* 
She  again  beseeches  Philip  to  make  the  concessions 
demanded,  in  which  event  the  great  lords  assure  her  of 
their  support  in  restoring  order. 

It  was  the  policy  of  the  cabinet  of  Madrid  not  to 
commit  itself.  The  royal  answers  were  brief,  vague, 
never  indicating  a  new  measure,  generally  intimating 
satisfaction  with  the  conduct  of  the  regent,  and  throw- 
ing as  far  as  possible  all  responsibility  on  her  shoulders. 

But,  besides  his  sister's  letters,  the  king  was  careful 
to  provide  himself  with  other  sources  of  information 
respecting  the  state  of  the  Netherlands.  From  some 
of  these  the  accounts  he  received  of  the  conduct  of  the 
great  lords  were  even  less  favorable  than  hers.  A  letter 
from  the  secretary,  Armenteros,  speaks  of  the  difficulty 
he  finds  in  fathoming  the  designs  of  the  prince  of 
Orange, — a  circumstance  which  he  attributes  to  his 
probable  change  of  religion.  "He  relies  much,"  says 
the  writer,  "on  the  support  he  receives  in  Germany, 
on  his  numerous  friends  at  home,  and  on  the  general 
distrust  entertained  of  the  king.  The  prince  is  making 
preparations  in  good  season,"  he  concludes,  "  for  de- 
fending himself  against  your  majesty.  "^^ 

■•4  "  Sans  aide  et  sans  ordres,  de  maniere  que,  dans  tout  ce  qu'elle 
fait,  elle  doit  aller  en  tatonnant  et  au  hasard."  Correspondance  de 
Pliilippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  428. 

2S  "  Le  prince  se  prepare  de  longue  main  k  la  defense  qu'il  sera 
force  de  faire  contre  le  Roi."  Ibid.,  p.  431. — It  was  natural  that  the 
relations  of  William  with  the  party  of  reform  should  have  led  to  the 
persuasion  that  he  had  returned  to  the  opinions  in  which  he  had  been 
early  educated.  These  were  Lutheran.  There  is  no  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  at  the  present  time  he  had  espoused  the  doctrines  of  Calvin. 
Tlie  intimation  of  Armenteros  respecting  the  prince's  change  of  re- 
ligion seems  to  have  made  a  strong  impression  on  Philip,     On  the 


MEETING  AT  ST.   TROND. 


31 


Yet  Philip  did  not  betray  any  consciousness  of  this 
unfriendly  temper  in  the  nobles.  To  the  prince  of 
Orange,  in  particular,  he  wrote,  ''You  err  in  imagining 
that  I  have  not  entire  confidence  in  you.  Should  any 
one  seek  to  do  you  an  ill  office  with  me,  I  should  not 
be  so  light  as  to  give  ear  to  him,  having  had  so  large 
experience  of  your  loyalty  and  your  services."  "^  "  This 
is  not  the  time,"  he  adds,  "for  men  like  you  to  with- 
draw from  public  affairs."  But  William  was  the  last 
man  to  be  duped  by  these  fair  words.  When  others 
inveighed  against  the  conduct  of  the  regent,  William 
excused, her  by  throwing  the  blame  on  Philip.  "Re- 
solved to  deceive  all,"  he  said,  "he  begins  by  deceiving 
his  sister."  ^ 

It  was  about  the  middle  of  July  that  an  event  oc- 
curred \vhich  caused  still  greater  confusion  in  the 
affairs  of  the  Netherlands.  This  was  a  meeting  of  the 
confederates  at  St.  Trond,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Liege.  They  assembled,  two  thousand  in  number, 
with  Count  Louis  and  Brederode  at  their  head.  Their 
great  object  was  to  devise  some  means  for  their  personal 
security.  They  were  aware  that  they  were  held  re- 
sponsible, to  some  extent,  for  the  late  religious  move- 
margin  of  the  letter  he  wrote  against  the  passage,  "  No  one  has  said 
this  so  unequivocally  before," — "  No  lo  ha  escrito  nadie  asi  claro." 

a6  "  Vos  OS  enganariades  mucho  en  pensar  que  yo  no  tubiese  todn 
confianza  de  vos,  y  quando  hubiese  alguno  querido  hazer  oficio  con 
migo  en  contrario  i.  esto,  no  soy  tan  liviano  que  hubiese  dado  credito 
d  ello,  teniendo  yo  tanta  esperiencia  de  vuestra  lealtad  y  de  vuestros 
sen'icios."  Correspondance  de  Guillaume  le  Taciturne,  torn.  ii.  p. 
171. 

»7  "  Que  le  roi,  resolu  de  les  tromper  tous,  commen9ait  par  tromper 
sa  soeur."     Vandervynckt,  Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  p.  148. 


32 


FREEDOM  OF   WORSHIP. 


ments  among  the  people. ^^  They  were  discontented 
with  the  prolonged  silence  of  the  king,  and  they  were 
alarmed  by  rumors  of  military  preparations,  said  to  he 
designed  against  them.  The  discussions  of  the  assem- 
bly, long  and  animated,  showed  some  difference  of 
opinion.  All  agreed  to  demand  some  guarantee  from 
the  government  for  their  security.  But  the  greater 
part  of  the  body,  no  longer  halting  at  the  original 
limits  of  their  petition,  were  now  for  demanding  ab- 
solute toleration  in  matters  of  religion.  Some  few 
of  the  number,  stanch  Catholics  at  heart,  who  for  the 
first  time  seem  to  have  had  their  eyes  opened  to  the 
results  to  which  they  were  inevitably  tending,  now, 
greatly  disgusted,  withdrew  from  the  league.  Among 
these  was  the  younger  Count  Mansfeldt, — a  name  des- 
tined to  become  famous  in  the  annals  of  the  revolu- 
tion. 

Margaret,  much  alarmed  by  these  new  demonstra- 
tions, sent  Orange  and  Egmont  to  confer  with  the 
confederates  and  demand  why  they  were  thus  met  in 
an  unfriendly  attitude  towards  the  government  which 
they  had  so  lately  pledged  themselves  to  support  in 
maintaining  order.  The  confederates  replied  by  send- 
ing a  deputation  of  their  body  to  submit  their  grievances 
anew  to  the  regent. 

The  deputies,  twelve  in  number,  and  profanely  nick- 

*  This  responsibility  is  bluntly  charged  on  them  by  Renom  de 
Francia:  "El  dia  de  las  predicaciones  oraciones  y  cantos  estando 
concertado,  se  acordo  con  las  principales  villas  que  fuese  el  San  Juan 
siguiente  y  de  continuar  en  adelante,  primero  en  los  Bosques  y  monta- 
fias,  despues  en  los  anabales  y  Aldcas  y  pues  en  las  vilhis,  por  nie- 
dida  que  el  numero,  la  audacia  y  sufrimiento  creciese."  Alborotos  de 
Flandes.  MS. 


MEETING  AT  ST.    TROND. 


zz 


named  at  Brussels  ''the  twelve  apostles,"  "^  presented 
themselves,  with  Count  Louis  at  their  head,  on  the 
twenty-eighth  of  July,  at  the  capital,  Margaret,  who 
with  difficulty  consented  to  receive  them  in  person, 
gave  unequivocal  signs  of  her  displeasure.  In  the  plain 
language  of  Louis,  "the  regent  was  ready  to  burst  with 
anger. ' '  ^  The  memorial,  or  rather  remonstrance,  pre- 
sented to  her  was  not  calculated  to  allay  it. 

Without  going  into  details,  it  is  only  necessary  to  say 
that  the  confederates,  after  stating  their  grounds  for 
apprehension,  requested  that  an  assurance  should  be 
given  by  the  government  that  no  harm  was  intended 
them.  As  to  pardon  for  the  past,  they  disclaimed  all 
desire  for  it.  What  they  had  done  called  for  applause, 
not  condemnation.  They  only  trusted  that  his  majesty 
would  be  pleased  to  grant  a  convocation  of  the  states- 
general,  to  settle  the  affairs  of  the  country.  In  the 
mean  time,  they  besought  him  to  allow  the  concerns  of 
the  confederates  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  prince 
of  Orange,  and  the  Counts  Egmont  and  Hoorne,  to  act 
as  their  mediators  with  the  crown,  promising  in  all 
things  to  be  guided  by  their  counsel.  Thus  would 
tranquillity  be  restored.  But  without  some  guarantee 
for  their  safety,  they  should  be  obliged  to  protect 
themselves  by  foreign  aid. 3' 

The  haughty  tome  of  this  memorial  forms  a  striking 
contrast  with  that  of  the  petition  presented  by  the 

29  "  Qui  vulgari  joco  duodecim  Apostoli  dicebantur."  Strada,  De 
Bello  Belgico,  tom.  i.  p.  24S. 

30  "  S'est  mise  en  une  telle  colore  centre  nous,  qu'elie  a  pens6  cre- 
ver."     Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  tom.  ii.  p.  178. 

3'  "  Alioqui  externa  remedia  quamvis  invitos  postremd  qiiaesituros." 
Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  tom.  i.  p.  248. 


34 


FREEDOM  OF   WORSHIP. 


same  body  not  four  months  before,  and  shows  with 
what  rapid  strides  the  revolution  had  advanced.  The 
religious  agitations  had  revealed  the  amount  of  discon- 
tent in  the  country,  and  to  what  extent,  therefore,  the 
confederates  might  rely  on  the  sympathy  of  the  people. 
This  was  most  unequivocally  proved  during  the  meeting 
at  St.  Trond,  where  memorials  were  presented  by  the 
merchants,  and  by  persons  of  the  Reformed  religion, 
praying  the  protection  of  the  league  to  secure  them 
freedom  of  worship  till  otherwise  determined  by  the 
states-general.  This  extraordinary  request  was  granted. ^^ 
Thus  the  two  great  parties  leaned  on  each  other  for  sup- 
port, and  gave  mutual  confidence  to  their  respective 
movements.  The  confederates,  discarding  the  idea  of 
grace,  which  they  had  once  solicited,  now  darkly  inti- 
mated a  possible  appeal  to  arms.  The  Reformers,  on 
their  side,  instead  of  the  mitigation  of  penalties,  now 
talked  of  nothing  less  than  absolute  toleration.  Thus 
political  revolution  and  religious  reform  went  hand  in 
hand  together.  The  nobles  and  the  commons,  the  two 
most  opposite  elements  of  the  body  politic,  were  united 
closely  by  a  common  interest ;  and  a  formidable  oppo- 
sition was  organized  to  the  designs  of  the  monarch, 
which  might  have  made  any  monarch  tremble  on  his 
throne. 

An  important  fact  shows  that  the  confederates  coolly 
looked  forward,  even  at  this  time,  to  a  conflict  with 
Spain.  Touis  of  Nassau  had  a  large  correspondence 
with  the  leaders  of  the  Huguenots  in  France  and  of 
the  Lutherans  in   Germany.     By  the  former  he  had 

32  The  memorials  are  given  at  length  by  Groen,  Archives  de  la 
Maison  d' Orange-Nassau,  lorn.  ii.  pp.  159-167. 


MEETING  AT  ST.   TROND. 


35 


been  offered  substantial  aid  in  the  way  of  troops.  But 
the  national  jealousy  entertained  of  the  French  would 
have  made  it  impolitic  to  accept  it.  He  turned  there- 
fore to  Germany,  where  he  had  numerous  connections, 
and  where  he  subsidized  a  force  consisting  of  four 
thousand  horse  and  forty  companies  of  foot,  to  be  at 
the  disposal  of  the  league.  This  negotiation  was  con- 
ducted under  the  eye,  and,  as  it  seems,  partly  through 
the  agency,  of  his  brother  William. ^3  From  this  mo- 
ment, therefore,  if  not  before,  the  prince  of  Orange 
may  be  identified  with  the  party  who  were  prepared  to 
maintain  their  rights  by  an  appeal  to  arms. 

These  movements  of  the  league  could  not  be  kept  so 
close  but  that  they  came  to  the  knowledge  of  Margaret. 
Indeed,  she  had  her  secret  agents  at  St.  Trond,  who 
put  her  in  possession  of  whatever  was  done,  or  even 
designed,  by  the  confederates. 3*  This  was  fully  ex- 
hibited in  her  correspondence  with  Philip,  while  she 
again  called  his  attention  to  the  forlorn  condition  of 
the  government,  without  men,  or  money,  or  the  means 
to  raise  it.'^  "The  sectaries  go  armed,"  she  writes, 
''and  are  organizing  their  forces.  The  league  is  with 
them.    There  remains  nothing  but  that  they  should  band 

33  See  the  letter  of  Louis  to  his  brother  dated  July  26th,  1566, 
Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  torn.  ii.  p.  178. 

34  The  person  who  seems  to  have  principally  served  her  in  this  re- 
spectable office  was  a  "doctor  of  law,"  one  of  the  chief  counsellors 
of  the  confederates.  Count  Megen,  her  agent  on  the  occasion,  bribed 
the  doctor  by  the  promise  of  a  seat  in  the  council  of  Brabant.  Cor- 
respondance  de  Philippe  II.,  tom.  i.  p.  435. 

35  "  Le  tout  est  en  telle  desordre,"  she  says  in  one  of  her  letters, 
"  que,  en  la  pluspart  du  pais,  Ton  est  sans  loy,  foy,  ni  Roy."  Corre- 
spondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  91. — Anarchy  could  not  be 
better  described  in  so  few  words. 


36  FREEDOM  OF   WORSHIP. 

together  and  sack  the  towns,  villages,  and  churches,  of 
which  I  am  in  marvellous  great  fear."  ^  Her  fears  had 
gifted  her  with  the  spirit  of  prophecy.  She  implores 
her  brother,  if  he  will  not  come  himself  to  Flanders,  to 
convoke  the  states-general,  quoting  the  words  of  Eg- 
mont,  that,  unless  summoned  by  the  king,  they  would 
assemble  of  themselves,  to  devise  some  remedy  for  the 
miseries  of  the  land  and  prevent  its  otherwise  inevita- 
ble ruin. 37  At  length  came  back  the  royal  answer  to 
Margaret's  reiterated  appeals.  It  had  at  least  one 
merit,  that  of  being  perfectly  explicit. 

Montigny,  on  reaching  Madrid,  as  we  have  seen,  had 
ready  access  to  Philip.  Both  he  and  his  companion,  the 
marquis  of  Bergen,  were  allowed  to  witness,  it  would 
seem,  the  deliberations  of  the  council  of  state  when  the 
subject  of  their  mission  was  discussed.  Among  the 
members  of  that  body,  at  this  time,  may  be  noticed 
the  duke  of  Alva;  Ruy  Gomez  de  Silva,  prince  of 
Eboli,  who  divided  with  Alva  the  royal  favor ;  Figue- 
roa,  count  of  Feria,  a  man  of  an  acute  and  penetrating 
intellect,  formerly  ambassador  to  England,  in  Queen 
Mary's  time;  and  Luis  de  Quixada,  the  major-domo  of 
Charles  the  Fifth.  Besides  these  there  were  two  or 
three  councillors  from  the  Netherlands,  among  whose 
names  we  meet  with  that  of  Hopper,  the  near  friend 
and  associate  of  Viglius.  There  was  great  unanimity 
in  the  opinions  of  this  loyal  body,  where  none,  it  will 

3*  "  II  ne  reste  plus  sinon  qu'ils  s'assemblent  et  que,  joincts  en- 
semble, ils  se  livrent  \  faire  quelque  sac  d'eglises,  villes,  bourgs,  ou 
pais,  de  quoy  je  suis  en  merveilleusement  grande  crainte."  Coire- 
spondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  121. 

37  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  432. 


PHILIP '  S  CONCESSIONS. 


37 


be  readily  believed,  was  disposed  to  lift  his  voice  in 
filvor  of  reform.  The  course  of  events  in  the  Nether- 
lands, they  agreed,  plainly  showed  a  deliberate  and 
well-concerted  scheme  of  the  great  nobles  to  secure  to 
themselves  the  whole  power  of  the  country.  The  first 
step  was  the  removal  of  Granvelle,  a  formidable  obstacle 
in  their  path.  Then  came  the  attempt  to  concentrate 
the  management  of  affairs  in  the  hands  of  the  council 
of  state.  This  was  followed  by  assaults  on  the  Inqui- 
sition and  the  edicts,  as  the  things  most  obnoxious  to 
the  people ;  by  the  cry  in  favor  of  the  states-general ; 
by  the  league,  the  Compromise,  the  petitions,  the  re- 
ligious assemblies;  and,  finally,  by  the  present  mission 
to  Spain.  All  was  devised  by  the  great  nobles  as  part  of 
a  regular  system  of  hostility  to  the  crown,  the  real  object 
of  which  was  to  overturn  existing  institutions  and  to 
build  up  their  own  authority  on  the  ruins.  While  the 
council  regarded  these  proceedings  with  the  deepest 
indignation,  they  admitted  the  necessity  of  bending  to 
the  storm,  and  under  present  circumstances  judged  it 
prudent  for  the  monarch  to  make  certain  specified  con- 
cessions to  the  people  of  the  Netherlands.  Above  all, 
they  earnestly  besought  Philip,  if  he  would  still  remain 
master  of  this  portion  of  his  empire,  to  defer  no  longer 
his  visit  to  the  country. '^ 

The  discussions  occupied  many  and  long-protracted 
sittings  of  the  council ;  and  Philip  deeply  pondered,  in 
his  own  closet,  on  the  results,  after  the  discussions  were 
concluded.  Even  those  mo:t  familiar  with  his  habits 
were  amazed  at  the  long  delay  of  his  decision  in  the 

38  The  fullest  account  of  the  doings  of  the  council  is  given  by  Hop- 
per, one  of  its  members.     Recueil  et  Memorial,  pp.  81-87. 
Philip.— Vol.  II.  4 


38  FREEDOM  OF   WORSHIP. 

present  critical  circumstances. ^^  The  haughty  mind  of 
the  monarch  found  it  difficult  to  bend  to  the  required 
concessions.     At  length  his  answer  came. 

The  letter  containing  it  was  addressed  to  his  sister, 
and  was  dated  on  the  thirty-first  of  July,  1566,  at 
the  Wood  of  Segovia, — the  same  place  from  which  he 
had  dictated  his  memorable  despatches  the  year  pre- 
ceding. Philip  began,  as  usual,  with  expressing  his 
surprise  at  the  continued  troubles  of  the  country.  .  He 
was  not  aware  that  any  rigorous  procedure  could  be 
charged  on  the  tribunals,  or  that  any  change  had  been 
made  in  the  laws  since  the  days  of  Charles  the  Fifth. 
Still,  as  it  was  much  more  agreeable  to  his  nature  to 
proceed  with  clemency  and  love  than  with  severity,*" 
he  would  conform  as  far  as  possible  to  the  desires  of 
his  vassals. 

He  was  content  that  the  Inquisition  should  be  abol- 
ished in  the  Netherlands,  and  in  its  place  be  substituted 
the  inquisitorial  powers  vested  in  the  bishops.  As  to 
the  edicts,  he  was  not  pleased  with  the  plan  of  Moder- 
ation devised  by  Margaret ;  nor  did  he  believe  that  any 
plan  would  satisfy  the  people  short  of  perfect  toleration. 
Still,  he  would  have  his  sister  prepare  another  scheme, 
having  due  reference  to  the  maintenance  of  the  Cath- 
olic faith  and  his  own  authority.  This  must  be  sub- 
mitted to  him,  and  he  would  do  all  that  he  possibly 

39  "  Ceux  du  conseil  cl'6tat  sont  etonnes  du  delai  que  le  Roi  met  a 
repondre."  Montigny  to  Margaret,  July  21st,  Correspondance  de 
Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  434. 

40  "  Pcur  I'inclination  naturelle  que  j'ay  toujours  eu  de  traicter  mes 
vassaulx  et  subjects  plus  par  voyc  d'amour  et  clemcnce,  que  de  crainte 
et  de  rigeur,  je  me  suis  accommode  k  tout  ce  que  m'a  este  possible." 
Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  100. 


PHILIP'S   CONCESSIONS.  39 

could  in  the  matter,'"  Lastly,  in  respect  to  a  general 
pardon,  as  he  abhorred  rigor  where  any  other  course 
would  answer  the  end,-^  he  was  content  that  it  should 
he  extended  to  whomever  Margaret  thought  deserving 
of  it, — always  excepting  those  already  condemned,  and 
under  a  solemn  pledge,  moreover,  that  the  nobles  would 
abandon  the  league  and  henceforth  give  their  hearty 
support  to  the  government. 

Four  days  after  the  date  of  these  despatches,  on  the 
second  of  August,  Philip  again  wrote  to  his  sister,  touch- 
ing the  summoning  of  the  states-general,  which  she  had 
so  much  pressed.  He  had  given  the  subject,  he  said,  a 
most  patient  consideration,  and  was  satisfied  that  she 
had  done  right  in  refusing  to  call  them  together.  She 
must  not  consent  to  it.  He  never  would  consent  to 
it. '•3  He  knew  too  well  to  what  it  must  inevitably  lead. 
Yet  he  would  not  have  her  report  his  decision  in  the 
absolute  and  peremptory  terms  in  which  he  had  given 
it  to  her,  but  as  intended  merely  for  the  present  occa- 
sion ;  so  that  the  people  might  believe  she  was  still 
looking  for  something  of  a  different  tenor,  and  cherish 
the  hope  of  obtaining  their  object  at  some  future  day !  "•* 

41  "Ay  treuve  convenir  et  necessaire  que  Ton  conceive  certaine 
aultre  forme  de  moderation  de  placcart  par  delk,  ayant  egard  que  la 
saincte  foy  catholique  et  mon  authorite  soyent  gardees  .  .  .  et  y  feray 
tout  ce  que  possible  sera."  Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche, 
p.  103. 

42  "  N'abhorrissant  riens  tant  que  la  voye  de  rigeur."  Ibid.,  ubi 
supra. 

43  "Y  assi  vos  no  lo  consentais,  ni  yo  lo  consentire  tan  poco." 
Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  tom.  i.  p.  439. 

44  "  Pero  no  conviene  que  esto  se  entienda  alia,  ni  que  vos  teneis 
esta  orden  mia,  sino  es  para  lo  de  agora,  pero  que  la  esperais  para 
adelante,  no  desesperando  alios  para  entonces  dello."  Ibid.,  ubi 
supra. 


40  FREEDOM  OF   WORSHIP. 

The  king  also  wrote  that  he  should  remit  a  sufficient 
Slim  to  Margaret  to  enable  her  to  take  into  her  pay  a 
body  of  ten  thousand  German  foot  and  three  thousand 
horse,  on  which  she  could  rely  in  case  of  extremity. 
He  further  wrote  letters  with  his  own  hand  to  the  gov- 
ernors of  the  provinces  and  the  principal  cities,  calling 
on  them  to  support  the  regent  in  her  efforts  to  enforce 
the  laws  and  maintain  order  throughout  the  country. '♦s 

Such  were  the  concessions  granted  by  Philip,  at  the 
eleventh  hour,  to  his  subjects  of  the  Netherlands  ! — 
concessions  wrung  from  him  by  hard  necessity ;  doled 
out,  as  it  were,  like  the  scanty  charity  of  the  miser, — 
too  scanty  and  too  late  to  serve  the  object  for  which  it 
is  intended.  But  slight  as  these  concessions  were,  and 
crippled  by  conditions  which  rendered  them  nearly 
nugatory,  it  will  hardly  be  believed  that  he  was  not 
even  sincere  in  making  them  !  This  is  proved  by  a 
revelation  lately  made  of  a  curious  document  in  the 
Archives  of  Simancas. 

While  the  ink  was  scarcely  dry  on  the  despatches  to 
Margaret,  Philip  summoned  a  notary  into  his  presence, 
and  before  the  duke  of  Alva  and  two  other  persons, 
jurists,  solemnly  protested  that  the  authority  he  had 
given  to  the  regent  in  respect  to  a  general  pardon  was 
not  of  his  own  free  will.  "He  therefore  did  not  feel 
bound  by  it,  but  reserved  to  himself  the  right  to  punish 
the  guilty,  and  especially  the  authors  and  abettors  of 
sedition  in  the  Low  Countries."''''   We  feel  ourselves  at 

45  Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  pp.  io6,  114. 

46  "  Comme  il  ne  I'a  pas  fait  librcment,  ni  spontancment,  il  n'entend 
fitre  lid  par  cctte  antorisation,  mais  au  contraire  il  se  reserve  de  punir 
les  coupables,  et  principalement  ceu.x  qui  ont  iik  les  auteurs  et  fau- 


PHIL  IP'S.  CONCESSIONS.  4  x 

once  transported  into  the  depths  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
This  feeling  will  not  be  changed  when  we  learn  the  rest 
of  the  story  of  this  admirable  piece  of  kingcraft. 

The  chair  of  St.  Peter,  at  this  time,  was  occupied  by 
Pius  the  Fifth,  a  pope  who  had  assumed  the  same  name 
as  his  predecessor,  and  who  displayed  a  spirit  of  fierce, 
indeed  frantic,  intolerance,  surpassing  even  that  of  Paul 
the  Fourth.  At  the  accession  of  the  new  pope  there 
were  three  Italian  scholars,  inhabitants  of  Milan,  Ven- 
ice, and  Tuscany,  eminent  for  their  piety,  who  had 
done  great  service  to  the  cause  of  letters  in  Italy,  but 
who  were  suspected  of  too  liberal  opinions  in  matters 
of  faith.  Pius  the  Fifth  demanded  that  these  scholars 
should  all  be  delivered  into  his  hands.  The  three  states 
had  the  meanness  to  comply.  The  unfortunate  men 
were  delivered  up  to  the  Holy  Office,  condemned,  and 
burned  at  the  stake.  This  was  one  of  the  first  acts  of 
the  new  pontificate.  It  proclaimed  to  Christendom 
that  Pius  the  Fifth  was  the  uncompromising  foe  of 
heresy,  the  pope  of  the  Inquisition.  Every  subsequent 
act  of  his  reign  served  to  confirm  his  claim  to  this 
distinction. 

Yet,  as  far  as  the  interests  of  Catholicism  were  con- 
cerned, a  character  like  that  of  Pius  the  Fifth  must  be 
allowed  to  have  suited  the  times.  During  the  latter 
part  of  the  fifteenth  century  and  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth,  the  throne  had  been  filled  by  a  succession  of 
pontiffs  notorious  for  their  religious  indifference,  and 
their  carelessness,  too  often  profligacy,  of  life.     This, 

teurs  des  seditions."     Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  443. 
— One  would  have  been  glad  to  see  the  original  text  of  this  protest, 
which  is  in  Latin,  instead  of  M.  Gachard's  abstract. 
4* 


42  FREEDOM  OF   WORSHIP. 

as  is  well  known,  was  one  of  the  prominent  causes  of 
the  Reformation.  A  reaction  followed.  It  was  neces- 
sary to  save  the  Church.  A  race  of  men  succeeded,  of 
ascetic  temper,  remarkable  for  their  austere  virtues,  but 
without  a  touch  of  sympathy  for  the  joys  or  sorrows  of 
their  species,  and  wholly  devoted  to  the  great  work  of 
regenerating  the  fallen  Church.  As  the  influence  of 
the  former  popes  had  opened  a  career  to  the  Refor- 
mation, the  influence  of  these  latter  popes  tended 
materially  to  check  it ;  and  long  before  the  close  of 
the  sixteenth  century  the  boundary-line  was  defined, 
which  it  has  never  since  been  allowed  to  pass. 

Pius,  as  may  be  imagined,  beheld  with  deep  anxiety 
the  spread  of  the  new  religion  in  the  Low  Countries. 
He  wrote  to  the  duchess  of  Parma,  exhorting  her  to 
resist  to  the  utmost,  and  professing  his  readiness  to 
supply  her,  if  need  were,  with  both  men  and  money. 
To  Philip  he  also  wrote,  conjuring  him  not  to  falter  in 
the  good  cause,  and  to  allow  no  harm  to  the  Catholic 
faith,  but  to  march  against  his  rebellious  vassals  at  the 
head  of  his  army  and  wash  out  the  stain  of  heresy  in 
the  blood  of  the  heretic.''' 

47  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  236. — Among  those  who 
urged  the  king  to  violent  measures,  no  one  was  so  importunate  as 
Fray  Lorenzo  de  Villacancio,  an  Augustin  monk,  who  distinguished 
himself  by  the  zeal  and  intrepidity  with  which  he  ventured  into  the 
strongholds  of  the  Reformers  and  openly  denounced  their  doctrines. 
Philip,  acquainted  with  the  uncompromising  temper  of  the  man,  and 
his  devotion  to  the  Catholic  Church,  employed  him  both  as  an  agent 
and  an  adviser  in  regard  to  the  affairs  of  the  Low  Countries,  where 
Fray  Lorenzo  was  staying  in  the  earlier  period  of  the  troubles.  Many 
of  the  friar's  letters  to  the  king  are  still  preserved  in  Simancas,  and 
astonish  one  by  the  boldness  of  their  criticisms  on  the  conduct  of  the 
ministers,  and  even  of  the  monarch  himself,  whom  Lorenzo  openly 


PHILIP'S   CONCESSIONS.  43 

The  king  noAv  felt  it  incumbent  on  him  to  explain  to 
the  holy  father  his  late  proceedings.  This  he  did 
throiigli  Requesens,  his  ambassador  at  the  papal  court. 
The  minister  was  to  inform  his  holiness  that  Philip 
would  not  have  moved  in  this  matter  without  his  ad- 
vice, had  there  been  time  for  it.  But  perhaps  it  was 
better  as  it  was ;  for  the  abolition  of  the  Inquisition  in 

accuses  of  a  timid  policy  towards  the  Reformers.  In  a  memorial  on 
the  state  of  the  country,  prepared,  at  Philip's  suggestion,  in  the  be- 
ginning of  1566,  Fray  Lorenzo  urges  the  necessity  of  the  most  rigor- 
ous measures  towards  the  Protestants  in  the  Netherlands.  "  Since 
your  majesty  holds  the  sword  which  God  has  given  to  you,  with  the 
divine  power  over  our  lives,  let  it  be  drawn  from  the  scabbard,  and 
plunged  in  the  blood  of  the  heretics,  if  you  do  not  wish  that  the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  shed  by  these  barbarians,  and  the  blood  of  the 
innocent  Catholics  whom  they  have  oppressed,  should  cry  aloud  to 
Heaven  for  vengeance  on  the  sacred  head  of  your  majesty!  .  .  .  The 
holy  King  David  showed  no  pity  for  the  enemies  of  God.  He  slew 
them,  sparing  neither  man  nor  woman.  Moses  and  his  brother,  in  a 
single  day,  destroyed  three  thousand  of  the  children  of  Israel.  An 
angel,  in  one  night,  put  to  death  more  than  sixty  thousand  enemies 
of  the  Lord.  Your  majesty  is  a  king,  like  David ;  like  Moses,  a  cap- 
tain of  the  people  of  Jehovah;  an  angel  of  the  Lord, — for  so  the 
Scriptures  style  the  kings  and  captains  of  his  people ; — and  these 
heretics  are  the  enemies  of  the  living  God !"  And  in  the  same  strain 
of  fiery  and  fanatical  eloquence  he  continues  to  invoke  the  vengeance 
of  Philip  on  the  heads  of  his  unfortunate  subjects  in  the  Netherlands, 
That  the  ravings  of  this  hard-hearted  bigot  were  not  distasteful  to 
Philip  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  he  ordered  a  copy  of  his 
memorial  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  Alva,  on  his  departure  for  the 
Low  Countries.  It  appears  that  he  had  some  thoughts  of  sending 
Fray  Lorenzo  to  join  the  duke  there, — a  project  which  received  little 
f  ncouragement  from  the  latter,  who  probably  did  not  care  to  have  so 
meddlesome  a  person  as  this  frantic  friar  to  watch  his  proceedings. 
An  interesting  notice  uf  this  remarkable  man  is  to  be  found  in 
Gachard,  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn,  ii..  Rapport,  pp. 
xvi.-l. 


44  FKEEDOM  OF   WORSHIP. 

the  Low  Countries  could  not  take  effect,  after  all,  un- 
less sanctioned  by  the  pope,  by  whose  authority  it  had 
been  established.  This,  however,  was  to  be  said  in  con- 
fidence.''^ As  to  the  edicts,  Pius  might  be  assured  that 
his  majesty  would  never  approve  of  any  scheme  which 
favored  the  guilty  by  diminishing  in  any  degree  the 
penalties  of  their  crimes.  This  also  was  to  be  considered 
as  secret.''^  Lastly,  his  holiness  need  not  be  scandalized 
by  the  grant  of  a  general  pardon,  since  it  referred  only 
to  what  concerned  the  king  personally,  where  he  had  a 
right  to  grant  it.  In  fine,  the  pope  might  rest  assured 
that  the  king  would  consent  to  nothing  that  could  pre- 
judice the  service  of  God  or  the  interests  of  religion. 
He  deprecated  force,  as  that  would  involve  the  ruin  of 
the  country.  Still,  he  would  march  in  person,  without 
regard  to  his  own  peril,  and  employ  force,  though  it 
should  cost  the  ruin  of  the  provinces,  but  he  would 
bring  his  vassals  to  submission.  For  he  would  sooner 
lose  a  hundred  lives,  and  every  rood  of  empire,  than 
reign  a  lord  over  heretics. 5° 

Thus  all  the  concessions  of  Philip,  not  merely  his 
promises  of  grace,  but  those  of  abolishing  the  Inquisi- 
tion and  mitigating  the  edicts,  were  to  go  for  nothing, 
— mere  words,  to  amuse  the  people  until  some  effectual 

48  "  Y  por  la  priesa  que  dieron  en  esto,  no  ubo  tiempo  de  consul- 
tarlo  i.  Su  Santidad,  como  fuera  justo,  y  quiza  avra  sido  asi  major, 
pues  no  vale  nada,  sino  quitandola  Su  Santidad  que  es  que  la  pone ; 
pero  en  esto  conviene  que  aya  el  secreto  que  puede  conside-rar." 
Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  445. 

49  "  Y  en  esto  conviene  el  mismo  secreto  que  en  lo  de  arnba." 
Ibid.,  ubi  supra. — These  injunctions  of  secrecy  are  interpolations  in 
the  handwriting  of  the  "prudent"  monarch  himself. 

50  '■  perdere  todos  mis  estados,  y  cien  vidas  que  tuviesse,  porque  yo 
no  picnso  ni  quicro  scr  senor  de  hercges."     Ibid.,  p.  446. 


PHILIP'S  CONCESSIONS.  45 

means  could  be  decided  on.  The  king  must  be  allowed, 
for  once  at  least,  to  have  spoken  with  candor.  There 
are  few  persons  who  would  not  have  shrunk  from  ac- 
knowledging to  their  own  hearts  that  they  were  acting 
on  so  deliberate  a  system  of  perfidy  as  Philip  thus  con- 
fided in  his  correspondence  with  another.  Indeed,  he 
seems  to  have  regarded  the  pope  in  the  light  of  his 
confessor,  to  whom  he  was  to  unburden  his  bosom  as 
frankly  as  if  he  had  been  in  the  confessional.  The 
shrift  was  not  likely  to  bring  down  a  heavy  penance 
from  one  who  doubtless  held  to  the  orthodox  maxim 
of  "No  faith  to  be  kept  with  heretics." 

The  result  of  these  royal  concessions  was  what  might 
have  been  expected.  Crippled  as  they  were  by  condi- 
tions, they  were  regarded  in  the  Low  Countries  with 
distrust,  not  to  say  contempt.  In  fact,  the  point  at 
which  Philip  had  so  slowly  and  painfully  arrived  had 
been  long  since  passed  in  the  onward  march  of  the 
revolution.  The  men  of  the  Netherlands  now  talked 
much  more  of  recompense  than  of  pardon.  By  a 
curious  coincidence,  the  thirty-first  of  July,  the  day  on 
which  the  king  wrote  his  last  despatches  from  Segovia, 
was  precisely  the  date  of  those  which  Margaret  sent  to 
him  from  Brussels,  giving  the  particulars  of  the  recent 
troubles,  of  the  meeting  at  St.  Trond,  the  demand  for 
a  guarantee,  and  for  an  immediate  summons  of  the 
legislature. 

But  the  fountain  of  royal  grace  had  been  completely 
drained  by  the  late  efforts.  Philip's  reply  at  this  time 
was  prompt  and  to  the  point.  As  to  the  guarantee, 
that  was  superfluous  when  he  had  granted  a  general 
pardon.     For  the  states-general,  there  was  no  need  to 


46  FREEDOM  OF   WORSHIP. 

alter  his  decision  now,  since  he  was  so  soon  to  be  present 
in  the  country,  s' 

This  visit  of  the  king  to  the  Low  Countries,  respect- 
ing which  so  much  was  said  and  so  little  was  done, 
seems  to  have  furnished  some  amusement  to  the  wits 
of  the  court.  The  prince  of  Asturias,  Don  Carlos, 
scribbled  one  day  on  the  cover  of  a  blank  book,  as 
its  title,  "The  Great  and  Admirable  Voyages  of  King 
Philip  ;"  and  within,  for  the  contents,  he  wrote,  "  From 
Madrid  to  the  Pardo,  from  the  Pardo  to  the  Escorial, 
from  the  Escorial  to  Aranjuez,"  etc.,  etc.s*  This  jest 
of  the  graceless  son  had  an  edge  to  it.  We  are  not 
told  how  far  it  was  relished  by  his  royal  father. 

5'  "  Et,  au  regard  de  la  covocation  desdicts  Estats  generaulx,  comme 
je  vous  ay  escript  mon  intention,  je  ne  treuve  qu'il  y  a  mati^re  pour 
la  changer  ne  qu'il  conviengne  aulcunement  qu'elle  se  face  en  mon 
absence,  mesmes  comme  je  suis  si  prest  de  mon  partement."  Corre- 
spondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  165. 

5=  Brantome,  Oiuvres,  torn.  iii.  p.  321. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

THE   ICONOCLASTS. 

Cathedral  of  Antweqj  sacked. — Sacrilegious  Outrages. — Alarm  at 
Brussels. — Churches  granted  to  Reformers. — Margaret  repents 
her  Concessions. — Feeling  at  Madrid. — Sagacity  of  Orange. — His 
Religious  Opinions. 

1566. 

While  Philip  was  thus  tardily  coming  to  concessions 
which  even  then  were  not  sincere,  an  important  crisis 
had  arrived  in  the  affairs  of  the  Netherlands.  In  the 
earlier  stages  of  the  troubles,  all  orders,  the  nobles,  the 
commons,  even  the  regent,  had  united  in  the  desire  to 
obtain  the  removal  of  certain  abuses,  especially  the  In- 
quisition and  the  edicts.  But  this  movement,  in  which 
the  Catholic  joined  with  the  Protestant,  had  far  less 
reference  to  the  interests  of  religion  than  to  the  per- 
sonal rights  of  the  individual.  Under  the  protection 
thus  afforded,  however,  the  Reformation  struck  deep 
root  in  the  soil.  It  flourished  still  more  under  the  favor 
shown  to  it  by  the  confederates,  who,  as  we  have  seen, 
did  not  scruple  to  guarantee  security  of  religious  wor- 
ship to  some  of  the  sectaries  who  demanded  it. 

But  the  element  which  contributed  most  to  the  suc- 
cess of  the  new  religion  was  the  public  preachings. 
These  in  the  Netherlands  were  what  the  Jacobin  clubs 
Avere  in  France,  or  the  secret  societies  in  Germany  and 
Italy, — an  obvious  means  for  bringing  together  such  as 
were  pledged  to  a  common  hostility  to  existing  insti- 

(47) 


48  THE  ICONOCLASTS. 

tutions,  and  thus  affording  them  an  opportunity  for 
consulting  on  their  grievances  and  for  concerting  the 
best  means  of  redress.  The  direct  object  of  these  meet- 
ings, it  is  true,  was  to  listen  to  the  teachings  of  the 
minister.  But  that  functionary,  far  from  confining 
himself  to  spiritual  exercises,  usually  wandered  to  more 
exciting  themes,  as  the  corruptions  of  the  Church  and 
the  condition  of  the  land.  He  rarely  failed  to  descant 
on  the  forlorn  circumstances  of  himself  and  his  flock, 
condemned  thus  stealthily  to  herd  together  like  a  band 
of  outlaws,  with  ropes,  as  it  were,  about  their  necks, 
and  to  seek  out  some  solitary  spot  in  which  to  glorify 
the  Lord,  while  their  eneniies_,  in  all  the  pride  of  a 
dominant  religion,  could  offer  up  their  devotions  openly 
and  without  fear,  in  magnilicent  temples.  The  preacher 
inveighed  bitterly  against  the  richly  beneficed  clergy  of 
the  rival  Church,  whose  lives  of  pampered  ease  too  often 
furnished  an  indifferent  commentary  on  the  doctrines 
they  inculcated.  His  wrath  was  kindled  by  the  pomp- 
ous ceremonial  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  so  dazzling  and 
attractive  to  its  votaries,  but  which  the  Reformer  sourly 
contrasted  with  the  naked  simplicity  of  the  Protestant 
service.  Of  all  abominations,  however,  the  greatest 
in  his  eyes  was  the  worship  of  images,  which  he  com- 
pared to  the  idolatry  that  in  ancient  times  had  so  often 
brought  down  the  vengeance  of  Jehovah  on  the  nations 
of  Palestine ;  and  he  called  on  his  hearers  not  merely 
to  remove  idolatry  from  their  hearts,  but  the  idols  from 
their  sight.'    It  was  not  wonderful  that,  thus  stimulated 

>  "  Accendunt  aninios  Ministri,  fugienda  non  animo  mod6,  sod  et 
corpore  idola:  eradicari,  extiqiari  tantarn  summi  Dei  contumeliam 
opporterc  affirmant."     Vander  Haer,  De  Initiis  Tumultuum,  p.  236. 


CATHEDRAL    OF  ANTWERP  SACKED. 


49 


by  their  spiritual  leaders,  the  people  should  be  prepared 
for  scenes  similar  to  those  enacted  by  the  Reformers  in 
France  and  in  Scotland,  or  that  Margaret,  aware  of 
the  popular  feeling,  should  have  predicted  such  an  out- 
break. At  length  it  came,  and  on  a  scale  and  with  a 
degree  of  violence  not  surpassed  either  by  the  Hugue- 
nots or  the  disciples  of  Knox. 

On  the  fourteenth  of  August,  the  day  before  the 
festival  of  the  Assumption  of  the  Virgin,  a  mob  some 
three  hundred  in  number,  armed  with  clubs,  axes, 
and  other  implements  of  destruction,  broke  into  the 
churches  around  St.  Omer,  in  the  province  of  Flan- 
ders, overturned  the  images,  defaced  the  ornaments, 
and  in  a  short  time  demolished  whatever  had  any  value 
or  beauty  in  the  buildings.  Growing  bolder  from  the 
impunity  which  attended  their  movements,  they  next 
proceeded  to  Ypres,  and  had  the  audacity  to  break  into 
the  cathedral  and  deal  with  it  in  the  same  ruthless  man- 
ner. Strengthened  by  the  accession  of  other  miscreants 
from  the  various  towns,  they  proceeded  along  the  banks 
of  the  Lys,  and  fell  upon  the  churches  of  Menin,  Co- 
mines,  and  other  places  on  its  borders.  The  excitement 
now  spread  over  the  country.  Everywhere  the  populace 
was  in  arms.  Churches,  chapels,  and  convents  were 
involved  in  indiscriminate  ruin.  The  storm,  after 
sweeping  over  Flanders  and  desolating  the  flourishing 
cities  of  Valenciennes  and  Tournay,  descended  on 
Brabant.  Antwerp,  the  great  commercial  capital  of 
the  country,  was  its  first  mark." 

=  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  pp.  250-252. — Vander  Haer,  De 
Initiis  Tumultuum,  p.  232,  et  seq. — Hopper,  Recueil  et  Memorial,  p. 
96. — Corrcspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  pp.  183,  185. 
rki!ip._Vol.  II.— c  5 


5° 


THE   ICONOCLASTS. 


The  usual  population  of  the  town  happened  to  be 
swelled  at  this  time  by  an  influx  of  strangers  from  the 
neighboring  country,  who  had  come  up  to  celebrate 
the  great  festival  of  the  Assumption  of  the  Virgin. 
Fortunately,  the  prince  of  Orange  was  in  the  place, 
and  by  his  presence  prevented  any  molestation  to  the 
procession,  except  what  arose  from  the  occasional  groans 
and  hisses  of  the  more  zealous  spectators  among  the 
Protestants.  The  priests,  however,  on  their  return, 
had  the  discretion  to  deposit  the  image  in  the  chapel, 
instead  of  the  conspicuous  station  usually  assigned  to 
it  in  the  cathedral,  to  receive  there  during  the  coming 
week  the  adoration  of  the  faithful. 

On  the  following  day,  unluckily,  the  prince  was  re- 
called to  Brussels.  In  the  evening  some  boys,  who  had 
found  their  way  into  the  church,  called  out  to  the  Vir- 
gin, demanding  "why  little  Mary  had  gone  so  early 
to  her  nest,  and  whether  she  were  afraid  to  show  her 
face  in  public."'  This  was  followed  by  one  of  the 
party  mounting  into  the  pulpit  and  there  mimicking 
the  tones  and  gestures  of  the  Catholic  preacher.  An 
honest  waterman  who  was  present,  a  zealous  son  of 
the  Church,  scandalized  by  this  insult  to  his  religion, 
sprang  into  the  pulpit  and  endeavored  to  dislodge  the 
usurper.  The  lad  resisted.  His  comrades  came  to  his 
rescue;  and  a  struggle  ensued,  which  ended  in  both  the 
parties  being  expelled  from  the  building  by  the  officers.'' 
This  scandalous  proceeding,  it  may  be  thought,  should 
have  put  the  magistrates  of  the  city  on  their  guard  and 

3  "  Si  Mariette  avait  peur,  qu'elle  se  retirat  sitdt  en  son  nid."  Cor- 
respondance  de  Guillaume  le  Taciturne,  torn,  ii.,  Preface,  p.  lii. 

4  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


CATHEDRAL    OF  ANTWERP  SACKED. 


5^ 


warned  them  to  take  some  measures  of  defence  for  the 
cathedral.     But  the  admonition  was  not  heeded. 

On  the  following  day  a  considerable  number  of  the 
reformed  party  entered  the  building,  and  were  allowed 
to  continue  there  after  vespers,  when  the  rest  of  the 
congregation  had  withdrawn.  Left  in  possession,  their 
first  act  was  to  break  forth  into  one  of  the  Psalms  of 
David.  The  sound  of  their  own  voices  seemed  to  rouse 
i;hem  to  fury.  Before  the  chant  had  died  away,  they 
rushed  forward  as  by  a  common  impulse,  broke  open 
the  doors  of  the  chapel,  and  dragged  forth  the  image 
of  the  Virgin.  Some  called  on  her  to  cry,  "  Vivent  les 
Gueuxf  while  others  tore  off  her  embroidered  robes 
and  rolled  the  dumb  idol  in  the  dust,  amidst  the  shouts 
of  the  spectators. 

This  was  the  signal  for  havoc.  The  rioters  dispersed 
in  all  directions  on  the  work  of  destruction.  Nothing 
escaped  their  rage.  High  above  the  great  altar  was 
an  image  of  the  Saviour,  curiously  carved  in  wood, 
and  placed  between  the  effigies  of  the  two  thieves 
crucified  with  him.  The  mob  contrived  to  get  a  rope 
round  the  neck  of  the  statue  of  Christ,  and  dragged 
it  to  the  ground.  They  then  fell  upon  it  with  hat- 
chets and  hammers,  and  it  was  soon  broken  into  a 
hundred  fragments.  The  two  thieves,  it  was  remarked, 
were  spared,  as  if  to  preside  over  the  work  of  rapine 
below. 

Their  fury  now  turned  against  the  other  statues, 
which  were  quickly  overthrown  from  their  pedestals. 
The  paintings  that  lined  the  walls  of  the  cathedral 
were  cut  into  shreds.  Many  of  these  were  the  choicest 
specimens  of  Flemish  art,  even  then,  in  its  dawn,  giving 


52  THE   ICONOCLASTS. 

promise  of  the  glorious  day  which  was  to  shed  a  lustre 
over  the  land. 

But  the  pride  of  the  cathedral,  and  of  Antwerp,  was 
the  great  organ,  renowned  throughout  the  Netherlands, 
not  more  for  its  dimensions  than  its  perfect  workman- 
ship. With  their  ladders  the  rioters  scaled  the  lofty 
fabric,  and  with  their  implements  soon  converted  it, 
like  all  else  they  laid  their  hands  on,  into  a  heap  of 
rubbish. 

The  ruin  was  now  universal.  Nothing  beautiful^ 
nothing  holy,  was  spared.  The  altars — and  there  were 
no  less  than  seventy  in  the  vast  edifice — were  over- 
thrown one  after  another;  their  richly  embroidered 
coverings  rudely  rent  away;  their  gold  and  silver  vessels 
appropriated  by  the  plunderers.  The  sacramental  bread 
was  trodden  under  foot ;  the  wine  was  quaffed  by  the 
miscreants,  in  golden  dialices,  to  the  health  of  one 
another,  or  of  the  Gueux ;  and  the  holy  oil  was  pro- 
fanely used  to  anoint  their  shoes  and  sandals.  The 
sculptured  tracery  on  the  walls,  the  costly  offerings 
that  enriched  the  shrines,  the  screens  of  gilded  bronze, 
the  delicately  carved  wood-work  of  the  pulpit,  the 
marble  and  alabaster  ornaments,  all  went  down  under 
the  fierce  blows  of  the  iconoclasts.  The  pavement  was 
strewed  with  the  ruined  splendors  of  a  church  which 
in  size  and  magnificence  was  perhaps  second  only  to 
St.  Peter's  among  the  churches  of  Christendom. 

As  the  light  of  day  faded,  the  assailants  supplied  its 
place  with  such  light  as  they  could  obtain  from  the 
candles  which  they  snatched  from  the  altars.  It  was 
midnight  before  the  work  of  destruction  was  completed. 
Thus  toiling  in  darkness,  feebly  dispelled  by  tapers  the 


SACRILEGIOUS   OUTRAGES. 


53 


rays  of  which  could  scarcely  penetrate  the  vaulted 
distances  of  the  cathedral,  it  is  a  curious  circumstance 
— if  true — that  no  one  was  injured  by  the  heavy  masses 
of  timber,  stone,  and  metal  that  were  everywhere  falling 
around  them.s  The  whole  number  engaged  in  this 
work  is  said  not  to  have  exceeded  a  hundred  men, 
women,  and  boys, — women  of  the  lowest  description, 
dressed  in  men's  attire. 

When  their  task  was  completed,  they  sallied  forth  in 
a  body  from  the  doors  of  the  cathedral,  some  singing 
the  Psalms  of  David,  others  roaring  out  the  fanatical 
war-cry  of  ^'Vivent  les  Gueiix  /"  Flushed  with  success, 
and  joined  on  the  way  by  stragglers  like  themselves, 
they  burst  open  the  doors  of  one  church  after  another ; 
and  by  the  time  morning  broke,  the  principal  temples 
in  the  city  had  been  dealt  with  in  the  same  ruthless 
manner  as  the  cathedral.* 

No  attempt  all  this  time  was  made  to  stop  these  pro- 
ceedings, on  the  part  of  magistrates  or  citizens.  As 
they  beheld  from  their  windows  the  bodies  of  armed 
men  hurrying  to  and  fro  by  the  gleam  of  their  torches, 
and  listened  to  the  sounds  of  violence  in  the  distance, 
they  seem  to  have  been  struck  with  a  panic.  The 
Catholics    remained   within-doors,   fearing    a   general 

5  "  Nullus  ex  eo  numero  aut  casu  afflictus,  aut  ruina  oppressus  de- 
cidentium  ac  transvolantium  fragmentorum,  aut  occursu  collisuque 
festinantium  cum  fabrilibus  armis  levissim^  sauciatus  sit."  Strada, 
De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  257. — "  No  light  argument,"  adds  the 
historian,  "  that  with  God's  permission  the  work  was  done  under  the 
immediate  direction  of  the  demons  of  hell !" 

6  Ibid.,  pp.  255-258. — Vander  Haer,  De  Initiis  Tumultuum,  p.  237, 
et  seq. — Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  vol.  i.  p.  193. — 
Correspondance  de  Guillaume  le  Tacitnme,  torn,  ii.,  Preface,  pp.  liii., 
liv. 

5* 


54 


THE  ICONOCLASTS. 


rising  of  the  Protestants.  The  Protestants  feared  to 
move  abroad,  lest  they  should  be  confounded  with  the 
rioters.  Some  imagined  their  own  turn  might  come 
next,  and  appeared  in  arms  at  the  entrances  of  their 
houses,  prepared  to  defend  them  against  the  enemy. 

When  gorged  with  the  plunder  of  the  city,  the  in- 
surgents poured  out  at  the  gates,  and  fell  with  the  same 
violence  on  the  churches,  convents,  and  other  religious 
edifices  in  the  suburbs.  For  three  days  these  dismal 
scenes  continued,  without  resistance  on  the  part  of  the 
inhabitants.  Amidst  the  ruin  in  the  cathedral,  the 
mob  had  spared  the  royal  arms  and  the  escutcheons 
of  the  knights  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  emblazoned  on 
the  walls.  Calling  this  to  mind,  they  now  returned 
into  the  city  to  complete  the  work.  But  some  of  the 
knights,  who  were  at  Antwerp,  collected  a  handful  of 
their  followers,  and,  with  a  few  of  the  citizens,  forced 
their  way  into  the  cathedral,  arrested  ten  or  twelve  of 
the  rioters,  and  easily  dispersed  the  remainder ;  while 
a  gallows  erected  on  an  eminence  admonished  the 
offenders  of  the  fate  that  awaited  them.  The  facility 
with  which  the  disorders  were  r^^pressed  by  a  few  reso- 
lute men  naturally  suggests  the  inference  that  many  of 
the  citizens  had  too  much  sympathy  with  the  authors 
of  the  outrages  to  care  to  check  them,  still  less  to  bring 
the  culprits  to  punishment.  An  orthodox  chronicler 
of  the  time  vents  his  indignation  against  a  people  who 
were  so  much  more  ready  to  stand  by  their  hearths 
than  by  their  altars.^ 

The  fate  of  Antwerp  had  its  effect  on  the  country. 

7  "  Pro  focis  pugn.itur  interdum  acrius  qu^m  pro  aris."  Strada,  De 
Belle  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  260. 


SACRILEGIOUS    OUTRAGES.  55 

The  flames  of  fanaticism,  burning  fiercer  than  ever, 
quickly  spread  over  the  northern  as  they  had  done  over 
the  western  provinces.  In  Holland,  Utrecht,  Fries- 
land, — everywhere,  in  short,  with  a  few  exceptions  on 
the  southern  borders, — mobs  rose  against  the  churches. 
In  some  places,  as  Rotterdam,  Dort,  Haarlem,  the 
magistrates  were  wary  enough  to  avert  the  storm  by 
delivering  up  the  images,  or  at  least  by  removing  them 
from  the  buildings.^  It  was  rarely  that  any  attempt  was 
made  at  resistance.  Yet  on  one  or  two  occasions  this 
so  far  succeeded  that  a  handful  of  troops  sufficed  to  rout 
the  iconoclasts.  At  Anchyn,  four  hundred  of  the  rabble 
were  left  dead  on  the  field*  But  the  soldiers  had  no 
relish  for  their  duty,  and  on  other  occasions,  when 
called  on  to  perform  it,  refused  to  bear  arms  against 
their  countrymen. '  The  leaven  of  heresy  was  too  widely 
spread  among  the  people. 

Thus  the  work  of  plunder  and  devastation  went  on 
vigorously  throughout  the  land.  Cathedral  and  chapel, 
monastery  and  nunnery,  religious  houses  of  every  de- 
scription, even  hospitals,  were  delivered  up  to  the 
tender  mercies  of  the  Reformers.     The  monks  fled, 

8  Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  vol.  i,  p.  201. 

9  But  the  Almighty,  to  quote  the  words  of  a  contemporary,  jealous 
of  his  own  honor,  took  signal  vengeance  afterwards  on  all  those  towns 
and  villages  whose  inhabitants  had  stood  tamely  by  and  seen  the 
profanation  of  his  temples :  "  Dios  que  es  justo  y  zelador  de  su  honra 
por  caminos  y  formas  incomprehensibles,  lo  ha  vengado  despues 
cruelmente,  por  que  todos  esos  lugares  donde  esas  cosas  han  aconte- 
cido  han  sido  tornados,  saqueados,  despojados  y  arruinados  por 
guerra,  pillage,  peste  y  incomodidades,  en  que,  asi  los  males  y  culpa- 
dos,  como  los  buenos  por  su  sufrimiento  y  connivencia,  han  conocido 
y  confesado  que  Dios  ha  sido  corrido  contra  ellos."  Renom  de 
Francia,  Alborotos  de  Flandes,  MS. 


56  THE  ICONOCLASTS. 

leaving  behind  them  treasures  of  manuscripts  and  well- 
stored  cellars,  which  latter  the  invaders  soon  emptied 
of  their  contents,  while  they  consigned  the  former  to 
the  flames.  The  terrified  nuns,  escaping  half  naked,  at 
dead  of  night,  from  their  convents,  were  too  happy  to 
find  a  retreat  among  their  friends  and  kinsmen  in  the 
city."  Neither  monk  nor  nun  ventured  to  go  abroad 
in  the  conventual  garb.  Priests  niight  be  sometimes 
seen  hurrying  away  with  some  relic  or  sacred  treasure 
under  their  robes,  which  they  were  eager  to  save  from 
the  spoilers.  In  the  general  sack  not  even  the  abode 
of  the  dead  was  respected ;  and  the  sepulchres  of  the 
counts  of  Flanders  were  violated,  and  laid  open  to  the 
public  gaze  ! " 

The  deeds  of  violence  perpetrated  by  the  iconoclasts 
were  accompanied  by  such  indignities  as  might  express 
their  contempt  for  the  ancient  faith.  They  snatched 
the  wafer,  says  an  eye-witness,  from  the  altar,  and  put 
it  into  the  mouth  of  a  parrot.  Some  huddled  the 
images  of  the  saints  together  and  set  them  on  fire,  or 
covered  them  with  bits  of  armor,  and,  shouting  "Vive7it 
les  Gueux  P''  tilted  rudely  against  them.  Some  put  on 
the  vestments  stolen  from  the  churches,  and  ran  about 
the  streets  with  them  in  mockery.  Some  basted  the 
books  with  butter,  that  they  might  burn  the  more 
briskly."     By  the  scholar,  this  last  enormity  will  not 

'o  Sfrada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  259. 

"  "En  tous  ces  monast^res  et  cloistres,  ils  abattent  touttes  sepul- 
tures des  comtes  et  conitesses  de  Flandres  et  aultres."  Correspon- 
dance  de*  Marguerite  d'Autriclie,  p.  183. 

"  "  Hie  psittaco  sacrosanctum  Domini  corpus  porrigerent:  Hic  ex  . 
ordine  collocatis  imaginibus  ignem  subijcerent,  cadentibus   insulta- 
rent :  Hic  statuis  arma  induerent,  in  armatos  depugnarent,  deiectos, 


SACRILEGIOUS   OUTRAGES. 


57 


be  held  light  among  their  transgressions.  It  answered 
their  purpose,  to  judge  by  the  number  of  volumes  that 
were  consumed.  Among  the  rest,  the  great  library  of 
Vicogne,  one  of  the  noblest  collections  of  the  Nether- 
lands, perished  in  the  flames  kindled  by  these  fanatics. '^ 
The  amomit  of  injury  inflicted  during  this  dismal 
period  it  is  not  possible  to  estimate.  Four  hundred 
churches  were  sacked  by  the  insurgents  in  Flanders 
alone.'*  The  damage  to  the  cathedral  of  Antwerp,  in- 
cluding its  precious  contents,  was  said  to  amount  to 
not  less  than  four  hundred  thousand  ducats !  *s  The 
loss  occasioned  by  the  plunder  of  gold  and  silver  plate 
might  be  computed.  The  structures  so  cruelly  defaced 
might  be  repaired  by  the  skill  of  the  architect.  But 
who  can  estimate  the  irreparable  loss  occasioned  by  the 
destruction  of  manuscripts,  statuary,  and  paintings? 
It  is  a  melancholy  fact  that  the  earliest  efforts  of  the 
Reformers  were  everywhere  directed  against  those  mon- 
uments of  genius  which  had  been  created  and  cherished 
by  the  generous  patronage  of  Catholicism.  But  if  the 
first  step  of  the  Reformation  was  on  the  ruins  of  art,  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  a  compensation  has  been  found 
in  the  good  which  it  has  done  by  breaking  the  fetters 
of  the  intellect  and  opening  a  free  range  in  those 
domains  of  science  to  which  all  access  had  been  hith- 
erto denied. 

Viuant  Geusij  clamare  imperarent,  ut  ad  scopum  sic  ad  Christi  imagi- 
■nem  iaculaturi  coUimarent,  libros  bibliothecarum  butiro  inunctos  in 
ignem  conijcerent,  sacris  vestibus  summo  ludibrio  per  vicos  palkm 
vterentur."     Vander  Haer,  De  Initiis  Tumultuum,  p.  238. 

'3  Hopper,  Recueil  et  Memorial,  p.  98. 

•4  Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  182. 

•5  Strada,  De  Bello  Bclgico,  torn.  i.  p.  260. 
C* 


58 


THE  ICONOCLASTS. 


The  wide  extent  of  the  devastation  was  not  more  re- 
markable than  the  time  in  wliich  it  was  accomplished. 
The  whole  work  occupied  less  than  a  fortnight.  It 
seemed  as  if  the  destroying  angel  had  passed  over  the 
land  and  at  a  blow  had  consigned  its  noblest  edifices 
to  ruin  !  The  method  and  discipline,  if  I  may  so  say, 
in  the  movements  of  the  iconoclasts,  were  as  extraor- 
dinary as  their  celerity.  They  would  seem  to  have 
been  directed  by  some  other  hands  than  those  which 
met  the  vulgar  eye.  The  quantity  of  gold  and  silver 
plate  purloined  from  the  churches  and  convents  was 
immense.  Though  doubtless  sometimes  appropriated 
by  individuals,  it  seems  not  unfrequently  to  have  been 
gathered  in  a  heap  and  delivered  to  the  minister,  who, 
either  of  himself,  or  by  direction  of  the  consistory, 
caused  it  to  be  melted  down  and  distributed  among  the 
most  needy  of  the  sectaries.'*  We  may  sympathize 
with  the  indignation  of  a  Catholic  writer  of  the  time, 
who  exclaims  that  in  this  way  the  poor  churchmen  were 
made  to  pay  for  the  scourges  with  which  they  had  been 
beaten. '7 

The  tidings  of  the  outbreak  fell  heavily  on  the  ears, 
of  the  court  of  Brussels,  where  the  regent,  notwith- 
standing her  prediction  of  the  event,  was  not  any  the 
better  prepared  for  it.  She  at  once  called  her  coun- 
sellors together  and  demanded  their  aid  in  defending 

i6  "  Y  de  lo  que  venia  del  saco  de  la  plateria  y  cosas  sagradas  de  la 
yglesia  (que  algunos  ministros  y  los  del  consistorio  juntavan  en  una) 
distribuyendo  d  los  fieles  refoitnados  algunos  frutos  de  su  reforma- 
cion,  para  contentar  d  los  hambrientos."  Renom  de  Francia,  Albo- 
rotos  de  Flandes,  MS. 

'7  "  Haciendoles  pagar  el  precio  de  los  azotes  con  que  fueron  azo- 
tados."     Ibid. 


ALARM  AT  BRUSSELS. 


59 


the  religion  of  the  country  against  its  enemies.  But 
the  prince  of  Orange  and  his  friends  discouraged  a 
resort  to  violent  measures,  as  little  likely  to  prevail  in 
the  present  temper  of  the  people.  "First,"  said  Eg- 
mont,  "  let  us  provide  for  the  security  of  the  state. 
It  will  be  time  enough  then  to  think  of  religion." 
"No,"  said  Margaret,  warmly;  "the  service  of  God 
demands  our  first  care ;  for  the  ruin  of  religion  would 
be  a  greater  evil  than  the  loss  of  the  country."'^ 
"Those  who  have  any  thing  to  lose  in  it,"  replied  the 
count,  somewhat  coolly,  "  will  probably  be  of  a  differ- 
ent opinion,"  '' — an  answer  that  greatly  displeased  the 
duchess. 

Rumors  now  came  thick  on  one  another  of  the  out- 
rages committed  by  the  image-breakers.  Fears  were  en- 
tertained that  their  next  move  would  be  on  the  capital 
itself.  Hitherto  the  presence  of  the  regent  had  pre- 
served Brussels,  notwithstanding  some  transient  demon- 
strations among  the  people,  from  the  spirit  of  reform 
which  had  convulsed  the  rest  of  the  country.  No 
public  meetings  had  been  held  either  in  the  city  or  the 
uburbs  ;  for  Margaret  had  declared  she  would  hang  up 
not  only  the  preacher,  but  all  those  who  attended  him.*" 
The  menace  had  its  effect.     Thus  keeping  aloof  from 

'8  "II  repondit  que  la  premiere  chose  k  faire  etait  de  conservei 
I'fetat;  que,  ensuite  on  s'occuperait  des  choses  de  la  religion.  Elle 
repliqua,  non  sans  humeur,  qu'il  lui  paraissait  plus  necessaire  de 
pourvoir  d'abord  k  ce  qu'exigeait  le  service  de  Dieu,  parce  que  la 
mine  de  la  religion  serait  un  plus  grand  mal  que  la  perte  du  pays." 
Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  449. 

»9  "  II  repartit  que  tous  ceux  que  avaient  quelque  chose  k  perdre, 
ne  I'entendaient  pas  de  cette  mani^re."     Ibid.,  p.  450. 

»>  Vide  ante,  p.  28. 


6o  THE   ICONOCLASTS. 

the  general  movement  of  the  time,  the  capital  was 
looked  on  with  an  evil  eye  by  the  surrounding  country ; 
and  reports  were  rife  that  the  iconoclasts  were  pre- 
paring to  march  in  such  force  on  the  place  as  should 
enable  them  to  deal  with  it  as  they  had  done  with  Ant- 
werp and  the  other  cities  of  Brabant. 

The  question  now  arose  as  to  the  course  to  be  pur- 
sued in  the  present  exigency.  •  The  prince  of  Orange 
and  his  friends  earnestly  advised  that  Margaret  should 
secure  the  aid  of  the  confederates  by  the  concessions 
they  had  so  strenuously  demanded ;  in  the  next  place, 
that  she  should  conciliate  the  Protestants  by  consent- 
ing to  their  religious  meetings.  To  the  former  she 
made  no  objection.  But  the  latter  she  peremptorily 
refused.  ''  It  would  be  the  ruin  of  our  holy  religion," 
she  said.  It  was  in  vain  they  urged  that  two  hundred 
thousand  sectaries  were  in  arms ;  that  they  were  already 
in  possession  of  the  churches ;  that  if  she  persisted  in 
her  refusal  they  would  soon  be  in  Brussels  and  massacre 
every  priest  and  Roman  Catholic  before  her  eyes  ! " 
Notwithstanding  this  glowing  picture  of  the  horrors  in 
store  for  her,  Margaret  remained  inflexible.  But  her 
agitation  was  excessive ;  she  felt  herself  alone  in  her 
extremity.  The  party  of  Granvelle  she  had  long  since 
abandoned.  The  party  of  Orange  seemed  now  ready 
to  abandon  her.  "I  am  pressed  by  enemies  within 
and  without,"  she  wrote  to  Philip;  "there  is  no  one 
on  whom  I  can  rely  for  counsel  or  for  aid."="     Dis- 

"  "  Et  me  disoient  .  .  .  que  Ics  sectaires  voulloient  venir  tuer,  en 
ma  prdsence,  tous  les  prestres,  gens  d'^glise  et  catholicques."    Corre- 
spondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriclie,  p.  iS8. 
."^  "  La  duchessc  se  trouve  sans  conscil  ni  assistance,  press^e  par 


ALARM  AT  BJiUSSELS.  6 1 

trust  and  anxiety  brought  on  a  fever,  and  for  several 
days  and  nights  she  lay  tossing  about,  suffering  equally 
from  distress  of  body  and  anguish  of  spirit.*^ 

Thus  sorely  perplexed,  Margaret  felt  also  the  most 
serious  apprehensions  for  her  personal  safety.  With 
the  slight  means  of  defence  at  her  command,  Brussels 
seemed  no  longer  a  safe  residence,  and  she  finally  came 
to  the  resolution  to  extricate  herself  from  the  danger 
and  difficulties  of  her  situation  by  a  precipitate  flight. 
After  a  brief  consultation  with  Barlaimont,  Aerschot, 
and  others  of  the  party  opposed  to  the  prince  of  Orange, 
and  hitherto  little  in  her  confidence,  she  determined  to 
abandon  the  capital  and  seek  a  refuge  in  Mons, — a 
strong  town  in  Hainault,  belonging  to  the  duke  of 
Aerschot,  which,  from  its  sturdy  attachment  to  the 
Romish  faith,  had  little  to  fear  from  the  fanatics. 

Having  completed  her  preparations  with  the  greatest 
secrecy,  on  the  day  fixed  for  her  flight  Margaret  called 
her  council  together  to  communicate  her  design.  It 
met  with  the  most  decided  opposition,  not  merely  from 
the  lords  with  whom  she  had  hitherto  acted,  but  from 
the  President  Viglius.  They  all  united  in  endeavoring 
to  turn  her  from  a  measure  which  would  plainly  inti- 
mate such  a  want  of  confidence  on  the  part  of  the 
duchess  as  must  dishonor  them  in  the  eyes  of  the  world. 
The  preparations  for  Margaret's  flight  had  not  been 

I'ennemi  au  dedans  et  au  dehors."  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II., 
torn.  i.  p.  455. 

=23  "Nonobstant  touttes  ces  raisons  et  remonstrances,  par  plusieurs 
et  divers  jours,  je  n'y  ay  voullu  entendre,  donnant  par  plusieurs  fois 
soupirs  et  signe  de  douleur  et  angoisse  de  coeur,  jusques  k  Ik  que,  par 
aulcuns  jours,  la  fiebvre  m'a  detenue,  et  ay  passe  plusieurs  nuicts  sans 
repos."  Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  194. 
Philip.— Vol.  II.  6 


62  THE  ICONOCLASTS. 

conducted  so  secretly  but  that  some  rumor  of  them 
had  taken  wind ;  and  the  magistrates  of  the  city  now 
waited  on  her  in  a  body  and  besought  her  not  to  leave 
them,  defenceless  as  they  were,  to  the  mercy  of  their 
enemies. 

The  prince  was  heard  to  say  that  if  the  regent  thus 
abandoned  the  government  it  would  be  necessary  to 
call  the  states-general  together  at  once,  to  take  meas- 
ures for  the  protection  of  the  country.^"  And  Egmont 
declared  that  if  she  fled  to  Mons  he  would  muster  forty 
thousand  men  and  besiege  Mons  in  person. ^^  The  threat 
was  not  a  vain  one,  for  no  man  in  the  country  could 
have  gathered  such  a  force  under  his  banner  more  easily 
than  Egmont.  The  question  seems  to  have  been  finally 
settled  by  the  magistrates  causing  the  gates  of  the  town 
to  be  secured,  and  a  strong  guard  placed  over  them, 
with  orders  to  allow  no  passage  either  to  the  duchess 
or  her  followers.  Thus  a  prisoner  in  her  own  capital, 
Margaret  conformed  to  necessity,  and,  with  the  best 
grace  she  could,  consented  to  relinquish  her  scheme  of 
departure.  "* 

The  question  now  recurred  as  to  the  course  to  be 
pursued ;  and  the  more  she  pondered  on  the  embarrass- 
ments of  her  position,  the  more  she  became  satisfied 
that  no  means  of  extricating  herself  remained  but  that 
proposed  by  the  nobles.  Yet  in  thus  yielding  to  neces- 
sity she  did  so  protesting  that  she  was  acting  under 

'4  Correspon dance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  454. 

2S  "Egmont  a  tenu  le  meme  langage,  en  ajoiitant  qu'on  l^verait 
40,000  hommes,  pour  aller  assieger  Mons.     Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 

^  Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  196. — Strada,  De 
Bcllo  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  266. — Vita  Viglii,  p.  48. — Hopper,  Recueil  et 
Memorial,  p.  99. 


CONCESSIO.VS   OF  THE  REGENT. 


63 


compulsion.^  On  the  twenty-third  of  August,  Margaret 
executed  an  instrument  by  which  she  engaged  that  no 
harm  should  come  to  the  members  of  the  league  for 
any  thing  hitherto  done  by  them.  She  further  author- 
ized the  lords  to  announce  to  the  confederates  her 
consent  to  the  religious  meetings  of  the  Reformed,  in 
places  where  they  had  been  hitherto  held,  until  his 
majesty  and  the  states-general  should  otherwise  deter- 
mine. It  was  on  the  condition,  however,  that  they 
should  go  there  unarmed,  and  nowhere  offer  disturb- 
ance to  the  Catholics. 

On  the  twenty-fifth  of  the  month  the  confederate 
nobles  signed  an  agreement  on  their  part,  and  solemnly 
swore  that  they  would  aid  the  regent  to  the  utmost  in 
suppressing  the  disorders  of  the  country  and  in  bring- 
ing their  authors  to  justice;  agreeing,  moreover,  that 
so  long  as  the  regent  should  be  true  to  the  compact 
the  league  should  be  considered  as  null  and  void.^ 

The  feelings  of  Margaret,  in  making  the  concessions 
required  of  her,  may  be  gathered  from  the  perusal  of 
her  private  correspondence  with  her  brother.  No  act 
in  her  public  life  ever  caused  her  so  deep  a  mortifica- 
tion ;  and  she  never  forgave  the  authors  of  it.  "It 
was  forced  upon  me,"  she  writes  to  Philip;  "but, 
happily,  you  will  not  be  bound  by  it."     And  she  be- 

^7  At  Margaret's  command,  a  detailed  account  of  the  circumstances 
under  which  these  concessions  were  extorted  from  her  was  drawn  up 
by  the  secretary  Berty.  This  document  is  given  by  Gachard,  Corre- 
spondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn,  ii.,  Appendix,  p.  588. 

^  The  particulars  of  the  agreement  are  given  by  Meteren,  Hist, 
des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  45.  See  also  Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Low 
Countries,  vol.i.p.  204. — Correspondance  de  Guillaume  le  Taciturne, 
torn.  ii.  pp.  455,  459. — Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  cxliv. 


64  THE  ICONOCLASTS. 

seeches  him  to  come  at  once,  in  such  strength  as  would 
enable  him  to  conquer  the  country  for  himself,  or  to 
give  her  the  means  of  doing  so."^  Margaret,  in  early 
life,  had  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  Ignatius  Loyola. 
More  than  one  passage  in  her  history  proves  that  the 
lessons  of  the  Jesuit  had  not  been  thrown  away. 

During  these  discussions  the  panic  had  been  such 
that  it  was  thought  advisable  to  strengthen  the  garrison 
under  command  of  Count  Mansfeldt,  and  keep  the 
greater  part  of  the  citizens  under  arms  day  and  night. 
When  this  arrangement  was  concluded,  the  great  lords 
dispersed  on  their  mission  to  restore  order  in  their 
several  governments.  The  prince  went  first  to  Ant- 
werp, where,  as  we  have  seen,  he  held  the  office  of 
burgrave.  He  made  strict  investigation  into  the  causes 
of  the  late  tumult,  hung  three  of  the  ringleaders,  and 
banished  three  others.  He  found  it,  however,  no  easy 
matter  to  come  to  terms  with  the  sectaries,  who  had 
possession  of  all  the  churches,  from  which  they  had 
driven  the  Catholics.  After  long  negotiation,  it  was 
arranged  that  they  should  be  allowed  to  hold  six,  and 
should  resign  the  rest  to  the  ancient  possessors.  The 
arrangement  gave  general  satisfaction,  and  the  principal 
citizens  and  merchants  congratulated  William  on  having 
rescued  them  from  the  evils  of  anarchy. 

Not  so  the  regent.  She  knew  well  that  the  example 
of  Antwerp  would  become  a  precedent  for  the  rest  of 
the  country.  She  denounced  the  compact,  as  compro- 
mising the  interests  of  Catholicism,  and  openly  accused 

=^  "  Elle  le  supplie  d'y  venir  proniptenient,  k  main  armee,  afin  de 
Ic  conquerir  de  nouveau."  Correspondance  de  Philippr;  II.,  torn.  i. 
P-  453- 


CHURCHES  GRANTED   TO  REFORMERS.        65 

the  prince  of  having  transcended  his  powers  and  be- 
trayed the  trust  reposed  in  him.  Finally,  she  wrote, 
commanding  him  at  once  to  revoke  his  concessions. 

William,  in  answer,  explained  to  her  the  grounds  on 
which  they  had  been  made,  and  their  absolute  necessity 
in  order  to  save  the  city  from  anarchy.  It  is  a  strong 
argument  in  his  favor  that  the  Protestants,  who  already 
claimed  the  prince  as  one  of  their  own  sect,  accused 
him,  in  this  instance,  of  sacrificing  their  cause  to  that 
of  their  enemies ;  and  caricatures  of  him  were  made, 
representing  him  with  open  hands  and  a  double  face.^" 
William,  while  thus  explaining  his  conduct,  did  not 
conceal  his  indignation  at  the  charges  brought  against 
him  by  the  regent,  and  renewed  his  request  for  leave 
to  resign  his  offices,  since  he  no  longer  enjoyed  her 
confidence.  But,  whatever  disgust  she  may  have  felt 
at  his  present  conduct,  William's  services  were  too 
important  to  Margaret  in  this  crisis  to  allow  her  to  dis- 
pense with  them ;  and  she  made  haste  to  write  to  him 
in  a  conciliatory  tone,  explaining  away  as  far  as  possible 
what  had  been  offensive  in  her  former  letters.  Yet  from 
this  hour  the  consciousness  of  mutual  distrust  raised  a 
barrier  between  the  parties  never  to  be  overcome. 3' 

William  next  proceeded  to  his  governments  of 
Utrecht  and  Holland,  which,  by  a  similar  course  of 
measures  to  that  pursued  at  Antwerp,  he  soon  restored 
to  order.  While  in  Utrecht,  he  presented  to  the  states 
of  the  province  a  memorial,  in  which  he  briefly  reviewed 
the  condition  of  the  country.     He  urged  the  necessity 

3°  Raumer,  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  177. 
3«  Correspondance  de  Guillaume  le  Taciturne,  torn.  ii.  pp.  220,  223, 
231,  233;  Preface,  pji.  Ixii.-lxiv. 

6* 


66  THE   ICONOCLASTS. 

of  religioiis  toleration,  as  demanded  by  the  spirit  of 
the  age,  and  as  particularly  necessary  in  a  country  like 
that,  the  resort  of  so  many  foreigners  and  inhabited  by 
sects  of  such  various  denominations.  He  concluded 
by  recommending  them  to  lay  a  petition  to  that  effect 
before  the  throne, — not,  probably,  from  any  belief  that 
such  a  petition  would  be  heeded  by  the  monarch,  but 
from  the  effect  it  would  have  in  strengthening  the  prin- 
ciples of  religious  freedom  in  his  countrymen.  Wil- 
liam's memorial  is  altogether  a  remarkable  paper  for 
the  time,  and  in  the  wise  and  liberal  tenor  of  its  argu- 
ments strikingly  contrasts  with  the  intolerant  spirit  of 
the  court  of  Madrid. ^^ 

The  regent  proved  correct  in  her  prediction  that  the 
example  of  Antwerp  would  be  made  a  precedent  for 
the  country.  William's  friends,  the  Counts  Hoorne 
and  Hoogstraten,  employed  the  same  means  for  concil- 
iating the  sectaries  in  their  own  governments.  It  was 
otherwise  with  Egmont.  He  was  too  stanch  a  Catholic 
at  heart  to  approve  of  such  concessions.  He  carried 
matters,  therefore,  with  a  high  hand  in  his  provinces 
of  Flanders  and  Ai»tois,  where  his  personal  authority 
was  unbounded.  He  made  a  severe  scrutiny  into  the 
causes  of  the  late  tumult,  and  dealt  with  its  authors  so 
sternly  as  to  provoke  a  general  complaint  among  the 
reformed  party,  some  of  whom,  indeed,  became  so  far 
alarmed  for  their  own  safety  that  they  left  the  provinces 
and  went  beyond  sea. 

Order  now  seemed  to  be  re-established  in  the  land, 
through  the  efforts  of  the  nobles,  aided  by  the  confed- 

3"  The  document  is  given  entire  by  Groen,  Archives  de  la  Maison 
d'Orange-Nassau,  torn.  ii.  p.  429,  et  scq. 


CHURCHES  GRANTED    TO  REFORMERS.        67 

erates,  wlio  seem  to  have  faithfully  executed  their  part 
of  the  compact  with  the  regent.  The  Protestants  took 
possession  of  the  churches  assigned  to  them,  or  busied 
themselves  with  raising  others  on  the  ground  before 
reserved  for  their  meetings.  All  joined  in  the  good 
work,  the  men  laboring  at  the  building,  the  women 
giving  their  jewels  and  ornaments  to  defray  the  cost  of 
the  materials.  A  calm  succeeded, — a  temporary  lull 
after  the  hurricane;  and  Lutheran  and  Calvinist  again 
indulged  in  the  pleasing  illusion  that,  however  dis- 
tasteful it  might  be  to  the  government,  they  were  at 
length  secure  of  the  blessings  of  religious  toleration. 

During  the  occurrence  of  these  events  a  great  change 
had  taken  place  in  the  relations  of  parties.  The 
Catholic  members  of  the  league,  who  had  proposed 
nothing  beyond  the  reform  of  certain  glaring  abuses, 
and  least  of  all  any  thing  prejudicial  to  their  own 
religion,  were  startled  as  they  saw  the  inevitable  result 
of  the  course  they  were  pursuing.  Several  of  them,  as 
we  have  seen,  had  left  the  league  before  the  outbreak 
of  the  iconoclasts ;  and  after  that  event  but  very  few 
remained  in  it.  The  confederates,  on  the  other  hand, 
lost  ground  with  the  people,  who  looked  with  distrust 
on  their  late  arrangement  with  the  regent,  in  which 
they  had  so  well  provided  for  their  own  security.  The 
confidence  of  the  people  was  not  restored  by  the  ready 
aid  which  their  old  allies  seemed  willing  to  afford  the 
great  nobles  in  bringing  to  justice  the  authors  of  the 
recent  disorders. ^3  Thus  deserted  by  many  of  its  own 
members,  distrusted  by  the  Reformers,  and  detested  by 

33  Tiepolo,  the  Venetian  minister  at  the  court  of  Castile  at  this 
time,  in  his  report  made  on  his  return,  expressly  acquits  the  Flemish 


68  THE   ICONOCLASTS. 

the  regent,  the  league  ceased  from  that  period  to  exert 
any  considerable  influence  on  the  affairs  of  the  country. 
A  change  equally  important  had  taken  place  in  the 
politics  of  the  court.  The  main  object  with  Margaret, 
from  the  first,  had  been  to  secure  the  public  tranquillity. 
To  effect  this  she  had  more  than  once  so  far  deferred 
to  the  judgment  of  William  and  his  friends  as  to  pursue 
a  policy  not  the  most  welcome  to  herself.  But  it  had 
never  been  her  thought  to  extend  that  policy  to  the 
point  of  religious  toleration.  So  far  from  it,  she  de- 
clared that,  even  though  the  king  should  admit  two 
religions  in  the  state,  she  would  rather  be  torn  in  pieces 
than  consent  to  it.^*  It  was  not  till  the  coalition  of  the 
nobles  that  her  eyes  were  opened  to  the  path  she  was 
treading.  The  subsequent  outrages  of  the  iconoclasts 
made  her  comprehend  she  was  on  the  verge  of  a  preci- 
pice. The  concessions  wrung  from  her  at  that  time  by 
Orange  and  his  friends  filled  up  the  measure  of  her 
indignation.  A  great  gulf  now  opened  between  her 
and  the  party  by  whom  she  had  been  so  long  directed. 

nobles  of  what  had  been  often  imputed  to  them,  having  a  hand  in 
these  troubles.  Their  desire  for  reform  only  extended  to  certain  cry- 
ing abuses ;  but,  in  the  words  of  his  metaphor,  the  stream  which  they 
would  have  turned  to  the  irrigation  of  the  ground  soon  swelled  to  a 
terrible  inundation :  "  Contra  1'  opinion  de'  principali  della  lega,  che 
volevano  indur  timore  et  non  tanto  danno.  .  .  .  Dico  che  questo  fu 
perch^  essi  non  hebbero  mai  intentione  di  ribellarsi  dal  suo  sig'^^  mk 
Eolamente  con  questi  mezzi  di  timore  impedir  che  non  si  introducesse 
in  quel  stati  il  trilnmal  dell'  Inquisitione."  Relatione  di  M.  A.  Tie- 
polo,  1567,  MS. 

34  "En  supposant  que  le  Roi  voulut  admettre  deux  religions  (ce 
qu'elle  ne  pouvait  croire),  elle  ne  voulait  pas,  elle,  etre  rexecutrice 
d'une  semblable  determination ;  qu'elle  se  laisserait  plutot  mettre  en 
pieces."     Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  453. 


MARGARET  REPENTS  HER  CONCESSIONS.    69 

Yet  where  could  she  turn  for  support?  One  course 
only  remained ;  and  it  was  with  a  bitter  feeling  that 
she  felt  constrained  to  throw  herself  into  the  arms  of 
the  very  party  which  she  had  almost  estranged  from  her 
counsels.  In  her  extremity  she  sent  for  the  President 
Viglius,  on  whose  head  she  had  poured  so  many  anath- 
emas in  her  correspondence  with  Philip, — whom  she 
had  not  hesitated  to  charge  with  the  grossest  peculation. 
Margaret  sent  for  the  old  councillor,  and,  with  tears  in 
her  eyes,  demanded  his  advice  in  the  present  exigency. 
The  president  naturally  expressed  his  surprise  at  this 
mark  of  confidence  from  one  who  had  so  carefully 
excluded  him  from  her  counsels  for  the  last  two  years. 
Margaret,  after  some  acknowledgment  of  her  mistake, 
intimated  a  hope  that  this  would  be  no  impediment  to 
his  giving  her  the  counsel  she  now  so  much  needed. 
Viglius  answered  by  inquiring  whether  she  were  pre- 
pared faithfully  to  carry  out  what  she  knew  to  be  the 
will  of  the  king.  On  Margaret's  replying  in  the 
affirmative,  he  recommended  that  she  should  put  the 
same  question  to  each  member  of  her  cabinet.  "Their 
answers,"  said  the  old  statesman,  "will  show  you  whom 
you  are  to  trust."  The  question — the  touchstone  of 
loyalty — ^\vas  accordingly  put ;  and  the  minister,  who 
relates  the  anecdote  himself,  tells  us  that  three  only, 
Mansfeldt,  Barlaimont,  and  Aerschot,  were  prepared  to 
stand  by  the  regent  in  carrying  out  the  policy  of  the 
crown.  From  that  hour  the  regent's  confidence  was 
transferred  from  the  party  with  which  she  had  hitherto 
acted,  to  their  rivals. ^s 

35  The  report  of  this  curious  dialogue,  somewhat  more  extended 
than  in  these  pages,  is  to  be  found  in  the  Vita  Vighi,  p.  47. 


70 


THE  ICONOCLASTS. 


It  is  amusing  to  trace  the  change  of  Margaret's 
sentiments  in  her  correspondence  of  this  period  with 
her  brotlier.  *' Orange  and  Hoorne  prove  themselves, 
by  word  and  by  deed,  enemies  of  God  and  the  king."  3* 
Of  Egmont  she  speaks  no  better.  "  With  all  his  pro- 
testations of  loyalty,"  she  fears  he  is  only  plotting 
mischief  to  the  state.  "He  has  openly  joined  the 
Gueux,  and  his  eldest  daughter  is  reported  to  be  a 
Huguenot.  "37  Her  great  concern  is  for  the  safety  of 
Viglius,  "almost  paralyzed  by  his  fears,  as  the  peo- 
ple actually  threaten  to  tear  him  in  pieces.  "^^  The 
factious  lords  conduct  affairs  according  to  their  own 
pleasure  in  the  council;  and  it  is  understood  they 
are  negotiating  at  the  present  moment  to  bring  about  a 
coalition  between  the  Protestants  of  Germany,  France, 
and  England,  hoping  in  the  end  to  drive  the  house  of 
Austria  from  the  throne,  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  Spain 
from  the  Netherlands,  and  divide  the  provinces  among 
themselves  and  their  friends!^  Margaret's  credulity 
seems  to  have  been  in  proportion  to  her  hatred,  and 
her  hatred  in  proportion  to  her  former  friendship.  So 
it  was  in  her  quarrel  with  Granvelle,  and  she  now  dealt 
the  same  measure  to  the  men  who  had  succeeded  that 
minister  in  her  confidence. 

36  "  En  paroles  et  en  fails,  ils  se  sont  declares  contra  Dieu  et  contre 
le  Roi."     Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  453. 

37  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 

38  "  Le  president,  qu'on  menace  de  tous  cotes  d'assommer  et  de 
mettre  en  pieces,  est  devenu  d'une  timidity  incroyable."  Ibid.,  p. 
460. — Viglius,  in  his  "  Life,"  confirms  this  account  of  the  dangers 
with  which  he  was  threatened  by  the  people,  but  takes  much  more 
credit  to  himself  for  presence  of  mind  than  the  duchess  seems  willing 
to  allow.     Vita  Viglii,  p.  48. 

39  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  tom.  i.  pp.  255,  260. 


MARGARET  REPENTS  HER   CONCESSIONS. 


71 


The  prince  of  Orange  cared  little  for  the  regent's 
estrangement.  He  had  long  felt  that  his  own  path  lay 
wide  asunder  from  that  of  the  government,  and,  as  we 
have  seen,  had  more  than  once  asked  leave  to  resign 
his  offices  and  withdraw  into  private  life.  Hoorne 
viewed  the  matter  with  equal  indifference.  He  had 
also  asked  leave  to  retire,  complaining  that  his  services 
had  been  poorly  requited  by  the  government.  He  was 
a  man  of  a  bold,  impatient  temper.  In  a  letter  to  Philip 
he  told  him  that  it  was  not  the  regent,  but  his  majesty, 
of  whom  he  complained,  for  compelling  him  to  undergo 
the  annoyance  of  dancing  attendance  at  the  court  of 
Brussels  !  '*°  He  further  added  that  he  had  not  discussed 
his  conduct  with  the  duchess,  as  it  was  not  his  way  to 
treat  of  affairs  of  honor  with  ladies !  *'  There  was  cer- 
tainly no  want  of  plain-dealing  in  this  communication 
with  majesty. 

Count  Egmont  took  the  coolness  of  the  regent  in  a 
very  different  manner.  It  touched  his  honor,  perhaps 
his  vanity,  to  be  thus  excluded  from  her  confidence. 
He  felt  it  the  more  keenly  as  he  was  so  loyal  at  heart 
and  strongly  attached  to  the  Romish  faith.  On  the 
other  hand,  his  generous  nature  was  deeply  sensible  to 
the  wrongs  of  his  countrymen.  Thus  drawn  in  opposite 
directions,  he  took  the  middle  course, — by  no  means 
the  safest  in  politics.  Under  these  opposite  influences 
he  remained  in  a  state  of  dangerous  irresolution.     His 

4°  "  Disant  n'avoir  aulcun  d'elle,  mais  bien  de  Vostre  Majeste,  la- 
quelle  n'avoit  este  content  me  laisser  en  ma  maison,  mais  m'avoit 
commaiide  me  trouver  h.  Bruxelles  vers  Son  Altesse,  ou  avoie  receu 
tant  de  facheries."     Supplement  \  Strada,  tom.  ii.  p.  505. 

4^  "  Ne  me  samblant  debvoir  traicter  affaires  de  honneur  avecq 
Dames."     Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


72 


THE   ICONOCLASTS. 


sympathy  with  the  cause  of  the  confederates  lost  him 
the  confidence  of  the  government.  His  loyalty  to  the 
government  excluded  him  from  the  councils  of  the 
confederates.  And  thus,  though  perhaps  the  most 
popular  man  in  the  Netherlands,  there  was  no  one 
who  possessed  less  real  influence  in  public  affairs.*^ 

The  tidings  of  the  tumults  in  the  Netherlands,  which 
travelled  with  the  usual  expedition  of  evil  news,  caused 
as  great  consternation  at  the  court  of  Castile  as  it  had 
done  at  that  of  Brussels.  Philip,  on  receiving  his 
despatches,  burst  forth,  it  is  said,  into  the  most  violent 
fit  of  anger,  and,  tearing  his  beard,  he  exclaimed,  "It 
shall  cost  them  dear ;  by  the  soul  of  my  father  I  swear 
it,  it  shall  cost  them  dear!"''^  The  anecdote,  often 
repeated,  rests  on  the  authority  of  Granvelle's  corre- 
spondent, Morillon.  If  it  be  true,  it  affords  a  solitary 
exception  to  the  habitual  self-command  —  displayed 
in  circumstances  quite  as  trying — of  the  "prudent" 
monarch.  The  account  given  by  Hopper,  who  was 
with  the  court  at  the  time,  is  the  more  probable  of  the 
two.  According  to  that  minister,  the  king,  when  he 
received  the  tidings,  lay  ill  of  a  tertian  fever  at  Segovia. 

42  "They  tell  me,"  writes  Morillon  to  Granvelle,  "it  is  quite  in- 
credible how  old  and  gray  Egmont  has  become.  He  does  not  ven- 
ture to  sleep  at  night  without  his  sword  and  pistols  by  his  bedside!" 
(Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  Supplement,  p.  36.)  But 
there  was  no  pretence  that  at  this  time  Egmont's  life  was  in  danger. 
Morillon,  in  his  eagerness  to  cater  for  the  cardinal's  appetite  for  gos- 
sip, did  not  always  stick  at  the  improbable. 

43  "  II  leur  en  coutera  cher  (s'ecria-t-il  en  se  tirant  la  barbe),  il  leur 
en  coutera  cher;  j'en  jure  par  I'ame  de  mon  pere."  Gachard,  Ana- 
lectes  Belgiques,  p.  254.* 

*  ["Tirant  la  barbe"  is  merely  pulling,  or  twitching,  the  beard, — an 
habitual  gesture  of  Philip's,  according  to  some  writers. — Ed.] 


THE  FEELING  AT  MADRID. 


73 


As  letter  after  letter  came  to  hini  with  particulars  of 
the  tumult,  he  maintained  his  usual  serenity,  exhibiting 
no  sign  of  passion  or  vexation.  Though  enfeebled  by 
his  malady,  he  allowed  himself  no  repose,  but  gave 
unremitting  attention  to  business."^  He  read  all  the 
despatches,  made  careful  notes  of  their  contents,  send- 
ing such  information  as  he  deemed  best  to  his  council, 
for  their  consideration,  and,  as  his  health  mended, 
occasionally  attended  in  person  to  the  discussions  of 
that  body. 

One  can  feel  but  little  doubt  as  to  the  light  in  which 
the  proceedings  in  the  Netherlands  were  regarded  by 
the  royal  council  of  Castile.  Yet  it  did  not  throw  the 
whole,  or  even  the  chief,  blame  on  the  iconoclasts. 
They  were  regarded  as  mere  tools  in  the  hands  of  the 
sectaries.  The  sectaries,  on  their  part,  were,  it  was 
said,  moved  by  the  confederates,  on  whom  they  leaned 
for  protection.  The  confederates,  in  their  turn,  made 
common  cause  with  the  great  lords,  to  whom  many  of 
them  were  bound  by  the  closest  ties  of  friendship  and 
of  blood.  By  this  ingenious  chain  of  reasoning,  all 
were  made  responsible  for  the  acts  of  violence;  but  the 
chief  responsibility  lay  on  the  heads  of  the  great  nobles, 
on  whom  all  in  the  laSst  resort  depended.  It  was  against 
them  that  the  public  indignation  should  be  directed, 
not  against  the  meaner  offenders,  over  whom  alone  the 

44  "  De  tout  cela  (disje)  ne  se  perdit  un  seul  moment  en  ce  temps, 
non  obstant  la  dicte  maladie  de  Sa  Maj'«,  la  quelle  se  monstra  sem- 
blablement  selon  son  bon  naturel,  en  tous  ces  negoces  et  actions  tous- 
jours  tant  modeste,  et  temperee  et  constante  en  iceulx  affaires, 
quelques  extremes  qu'ilz  fussent,  que  jamais  Ton  n'a  veu  en  icelle 
signal,  ou  de  passion  contre  les  personnes  d'une  part,  ou  de  relasche 
en  ses  negoces  de  I'aultre."  Hopper,  Recueil  et  Memorial,  p.  104. 
Philip. — Vol.  II. — D  7 


74  THE   ICONOCLASTS. 

sword  of  justice  had  been  hitherto  suspended.  But  the 
king  should  dissemble  his  sentiments  until  he  was  in 
condition  to  call  these  great  vassals  to  account  for  their 
misdeeds.  All  joined  in  beseeching  Philip  to  defer  no 
longer  his  visit  to  Flanders ;  and  most  of  them  recom- 
mended that  he  should  go  in  such  force  as  to  look  down 
opposition  and  crush  the  rebellion  in  its  birth. 

Such  was  the  counsel  of  Alva,  in  conformity  with 
that  which  he  had  always  given  on  the  subject.  But 
although  all  concurred  in  urging  the  king  to  expedite 
his  departure,  some  of  the  councillors  followed  the 
prince  of  Eboli  in  advising  Philip  that,  instead  of  this 
warlike  panoply,  he  should  go  in  peaceable  guise,  ac- 
companied only  by  such  a  retinue  as  befitted  the  royal 
dignity.  Each  of  the  great  rivals  recommended  the 
measures  most  congenial  with  his  own  temper,  the 
direction  of  which  would  no  doubt  be  intrusted  to  the 
man  who  recommended  them.  It  is  not  strange  that 
the  more  violent  course  should  have  found  favor  with 
the  majority. '*5 

45  At  this  period  stops  the  "  Recueil  et  Memorial  des  Troubles  des 
Pays-Bas"  of  Joachim  Hopper,  which  covers  a  hundred  quarto  pages 
of  the  second  volume  (part  second)  of  Hoynck  van  Papendrecht's 
"Analecta  Belgica."  Hopper  was  a  jurist,  a  man  of  learning  and 
integrity.  In  1566  he  was  called  to  Madrid,  raised  to  the  post  of 
keeper  of  the  seals  for  the  affairs  of  the  Netherlands,  and  made  a 
member  of  the  council  of  state.  He  never  seems  to  have  enjoyed 
tlie  confidence  of  Philip  in  anything  like  the  degree  whichGranvelle 
and  some  other  ministers  could  boast;  for  Hopper  was  a  Fleming. 
Yet  his  situation  in  the  cabinet  made  him  acquainted  with  the  tone 
of  sentiment  as  well  as  the  general  policy  of  the  court ;  while,  as  a 
native  of  Flanders,  he  could  comprehend,  better  than  a  Spaniard, 
the  bearing  this  policy  would  have  on  his  countrymen.  His  work, 
therefore,  is  of  great  importance  as  far  as  it  goes.  It  is  diflTicult  to  say 
why  it  should  have  stopped  in  mediis,  for  Hopper  remained  still  in 


SAGACITY  OF  ORANGE. 


75 


Philip's  own  decision  he  kept,  as  usual,  locked  in  his 
own  bosom.  He  wrote  indeed  to  his  sister,  warning 
her  not  to  allow  the  meeting  of  the  legislature,  and 
announcing  his  speedy  coming, — all  as  usual  \  and  he 
added  that  in  repressing  the  disorders  of  the  country- 
he  should  use  no  other  means  than  those  of  gentleness 
and  kindness,  under  the  sanction  of  the  states. ■''^  These 
gentle  professions  weighed  little  with  those  who,  like 
the  prince  of  Orange,  had  surer  means  of  arriving  at 
the  king's  intent  than  what  were  afforded  by  the  royal 
correspondence.  Montigny,  the  Flemish  envoy,  was 
still  at  Madrid,  held  there,  sorely  against  his  will,  in  a 
sort  of  honorable  captivity  by  Philip.  In  a  letter  to 
his  brother.  Count  Hoorne,  he  wrote,  "  Nothing  can 
be  in  worse  odor  than  our  affairs  at  the  court  of  Castile. 
The  great  lords,  in  particular,  are  considered  as  the 
source  of  all  the  mischief.  Violent  counsels  are  alto- 
gether in  the  ascendant,  and  the  storm  may  burst  on  you 
sooner  than  you  think.  Nothing  remains  but  to  fly  from 
it  like  a  prudent  man,  or  to  face  it  like  a  brave  one  !"•"' 

William  had  other  sources  of  intelligence,  the  secret 
agents  whom  he  kept  in  pay  at  Madrid.  From  them  he 
learned  not  only  what  was  passing  at  the  court,  but  in 
the  very  cabinet  of  the  monarch ;  and  extracts,  some- 
office,  and  died  at  Madrid  ten  years  after  the  period  to  which  he 
brings  his  narrative.  He  may  have  been  discouraged  by  the  remarlcs 
of  Vighus,  who  intimates,  in  a  letter  to  his  friend,  that  the  chronicler 
should  wait  to  allow  Time  to  disclose  the  secret  springs  of  action. 
See  the  Epistote  ad  Hopperum,  p.  419. 

46  Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  206. 

■47  "  Questo  h  il  nuvolo  che  minaccia  era  i  nostri  paesi ;  e  n'  uscirfl 
la  tempesta  forse  prima  che  non  si  pensa.  Chi  la  prevede  ne  d^ 
r  avviso ;  e  chi  n'  h  avvisato,  o  con  intrepidezza  1'  incontri,  o  con 
avvedimento  la  sfugga."     Bentivoglio,  Guerra  di  Fiandra,  p.  118. 


y6  THE  ICONOCLASTS. 

times  full  copies,  of  the  correspondence  of  Philip  and 
Margaret  were  transmitted  to  the  prince.  Thus  the 
secrets  which  the  most  jealous  prince  in  Europe  sup- 
posed to  be  locked  in  his  own  breast  were  often  in 
possession  of  his  enemies;  and  William,  as  we  are  told, 
declared  that  there  was  no  word  of  Philip's,  public  or 
private,  but  was  reported  to  his  ears !  "* 

This  secret  intelligence,  on  which  the  prince  ex- 
pended large  sums  of  money,  was  not  confined  to 
Madrid.  He  maintained  a  similar  system  of  espionage 
in  Paris,  where  the  court  of  Castile  was  busy  with  its 
intrigues  for  the  extermination  of  heresy.  Those  who 
look  on  these  trickish  proceedings  as  unworthy  of  the 
character  of  the  prince  of  Orange  and  the  position 
which  he  held  should  consider  that  it  was  in  accordance 
with  the  spirit  of  the  age.  It  was  but  turning  Philip's 
own  arts  against  himself,  and  using  the  only  means  by 
which  William  could  hope  to  penetrate  the  dark  and 
unscrupulous  policy  of  a  cabinet  whose  chief  aim,  as 
he  bliought,  was  to  subvert  the  liberties  of  his  country. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  his  agents  in  France  inter- 
cepted a  letter  from  Alava,  the  Spanish  minister  at 
the  French  court.  It  was  addressed  to  the  duchess  of 
Parma.  Among  other  things,  the  writer  says  it  is  well 
understood  at  Madrid  that  the  great  nobles  are  at  the 
bottom  of  the  troubles  of  Flanders.  The  king  is  levy- 
ing a  strong  force,  with  which  he  will  soon  visit  the 
country  and  call  the  three  lords  to  a  heavy  reckoning. 
In  the  mean  time  the  duchess  must  be  on  her  guard  not 

48  "  Nullum  prodire  h  Regis  ore  verbum  seu  private  seu  public^, 
quin  ad  ejus  aures  in  Belgium  fideliter  afferatur."  Strada,  De  Bello 
Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  281. 


SAGACITY  OF  ORANGE. 


77 


by  any  change  in  her  deportment  to  betray  her  con- 
sciousness of  this  intent.'*' 

Thus  admonished  from  various  quarters,  the  prince 
felt  that  it  was  no  longer  safe  for  him  to  remain  in  his 
present  position,  and  that,  in  the  words  of  Montigny, 
he  must  be  prepared  to  fight  or  to  fly.  He  resolved  to 
take  counsel  with  some  of  those  friends  who  were  simi- 
larly situated  with  himself.  In  a  communication  made 
to  Egmont  in  order  to  persuade  him  to  a  conference, 
William  speaks  of  Philip's  military  preparations  as 
equally  to  be  dreaded  by  Catholic  and  Protestant ;  for, 
under  the  pretext  of  religion,  Philip  had  no  other 
object  in  view  than  to  enslave  the  nation.  "This  has 
been  always  feared  by  us,"  he  adds; 5°  "and  I  cannot 
stay  to  witness  the  ruin  of  my  country." 

The  parties  met  at  Dendermonde  on  the  third  of 
October.  Besides  the  two  friends  and  Count  Hoorne, 
there  were  William's  brother  Louis,  and  a  few  other 
persons  of  consideration.  Little  is  actually  known  of 
the  proceedings  at  this  conference,  notwithstanding  the 
efforts  of  more  than  one  officious  chronicler  to  enlighten 
us.  Their  contradictory  accounts,  like  so  many  cross- 
lights  on  his  path,  serve  only  to  perplex  the  eye  of  the 
student.  It  seems  probable,  however,  that  the  nobles 
generally,  including  the  prince,  considered  the  time 

49  An  abstract  of  the  letter  is  given  by  Gachard,  Correspondance  de 
Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  485. 

50  "  Sa  Ma'6  et  ceulx  du  Conseil  seront  bien  aise  que  sur  le  pretext 
de  la  religion  ils  pourront  parvenir  k  leur  pretendu,  de  mestre  le  pais, 
nous  aultres,  et  nous  enfans  en  la  plus  miserable  servitude  qu'on 
n'auroit  jamais  veu,  et  come  on  ast  tousjours  craint  cela  plus  que 
chose  que  soit."  Archives  de  la  Maison  d' Orange-Nassau,  torn.  ii. 
P-  324- 

7* 


78  THE    ICOiVOCLASTS. 

had  arrived  for  active  measures,  and  that  any  armed 
intrusion  on  the  part  of  Philip  into  the  Netherlands 
should  be  resisted  by  force.  But  Egmont,  with  all  his 
causes  of  discontent,  was  too  loyal  at  heart  not  to  shrink 
from  the  attitude  of  rebellion.  He  had  a  larger  stake 
than  most  of  the  company,  in  a  numerous  family  of 
children,  who  in  case  of  a  disastrous  revolution  would 
be  thrown  helpless  on  the  world.  The  benignity  with 
which  he  had  been  received  by  Philip  on  his  mission 
to  Spain,  and  which  subsequent  slights  had  not  effaced 
from  his  memory,  made  him  confide,  most  unhappily, 
in  the  favorable  dispositions  of  the  monarch.  From 
whatever  motives,  the  count  refused  to  become  a  party 
to  any  scheme  of  resistance;  and,  as  his  popularity 
with  the  troops  made  his  co-operation  of  the  last  im- 
portance, the  conference  broke  up  without  coming  to  a 
determination.  5' 

Egmont  at  once  repaired  to  Brussels,  whither  he  had 
been  summoned  by  the  regent  to  attend  the  council  of 
state.  Orange  and  Hoorne  received,  each,  a  similar 
summons,  to  which  neither  of  them  paid  any  regard. 
Before  taking  his  seat  at  the  board,  Egmont  showed  the 
duchess  Alava's  letter,  upbraiding   her,  at   the   same 

5'  Egmont's  deposilion  at  his  trial  confirms  the  account  given  in 
the  text, — that  propositions  for  resistance,  though  made  at  the  meet- 
ing, were  rejected.  Hoorne,  in  his  "Justification,"  refers  the  failure 
to  Egmont.  Neither  one  nor  the  other  throws  light  on  the  course  of 
discussion.  Bentivoglio,  in  his  account  of  the  interview,  shows  no 
such  reserve ;  and  he  gives  two  long  and  elaborate  speeches  from 
Orange  and  Egmont,  in  as  good  set  phrase  as  if  they  had  been  ex- 
pressly reported  by  the  parties  themselves  for  publication.  The 
Italian  historian  affects  a  degree  of  familiarity  with  the  proceedings 
of  this  secret  conclave  by  no  means  calculated  to  secure  our  confi- 
dence.    Guerra  di  Fiandra,  pp.  123-128. 


SAGACITY  OF  ORANGE.  79 

time,  with  her  perfidious  conduct  towards  the  nobles. 
Margaret,  who  seems  to  have  given  way  to  temper  or  to 
tears  as  the  exigency  demanded,  broke  forth  in  a  rage, 
declaring  it  *'  an  impudent  forgery  and  the  greatest 
piece  of  villany  in  the  world  l''^^"  The  same  sentiment 
she  repeats  in  a  letter  addressed  soon  after  to  her 
brother,  in  which  she  asserts  her  belief  that  no  such 
letter  as  that  imputed  to  Alava  had  ever  been  written 
by  him.  How  far  the  duchess  was  honest  in  her  decla- 
ration it  is  impossible  at  this  day  to  determine.  Eg- 
mont,  after  passing  to  other  matters,  concludes  with  a 
remark  which  shows,  plainly  enough,  his  own  opinion 
of  her  sincerity.  "  In  fine,  she  is  a  woman  educated  in 
Rome.     There  is  no  faith  to  be  given  to  ]'ier."53 

In  her  communication  above  noticed,  Margaret  took 
occasion  to  complain  to  Philip  of  his  carelessness  in 
regard  to  her  letters.  The  contents  of  them,  she  said, 
were  known  in  Flanders  almost  as  soon  as  at  Madrid ; 
and  not  only  copies,  but  the  original  autographs,  were 

52  "  Siesse  qu'elle  jure  que  s'et  la  plus  grande  vilagnerie  du  monde 
.  .  .  et  que  s'et  ung  vray  pasquil  fameulx  et  qui  doit  ettre  forge  par- 
dech^,  et  beaucoup  de  chozes  semblables."  Archives  de  la  Maison 
d'Orange-Nassau,  torn.  ii.  p.  400. 

53  "  En  fin  s'et  una  femme  nourie  en  Rome,  il  n'y  at  que  ajouter 
loy."  Ibid.,  p.  401. — Yet  Egmont,  on  his  trial,  afflnned  that  he  re- 
garded the  letter  as  spurious!  (Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Au- 
triche,  p.  327.)  One  who  finds  it  impossible  that  the  prince  of  Orange 
could  lend  himself  to  such  a  piece  of  duplicity  may  perhaps  be  stag 
gered  when  he  calls  to  mind  his  curious  correspondence  with  the 
elector  and  with  King  Philip  in  relation  to  Anne  of  Saxony,  before 
his  marriage  with  that  princess.  Yet  Margaret,  as  Egmont  hints,  was 
of  the  Italian  school ;  and  Strada,  her  historian,  dismisses  the  ques- 
tion with  a  doubt, — "in  medio  ego  quidem  relinquo."  A  doubt  from 
Strada  is  a  decision  against  Margaret. 


8o  THE   ICONOCLASTS. 

circulating  in  Brussels.  She  concludes  by  begging  her 
brother,  if  he  cannot  keep  her  letters  safe,  to  burn 
them.  54 

The  king,  in  answer,  expresses  his  surprise  at  her 
complaints,  assuring  Margaret  that  it  is  impossible  any- 
one can  have  seen  her  letters,  which  are  safely  locked 
up,  with  the  key  in  his  own  pocket. ^^  It  is  amusing  to 
see  Philip's  incredulity  in  regard  to  the  practice  of 
those  arts  on  himself  which  he  had  so  often  practised 
on  others.  His  sister,  however,  seems  to  have  relied 
henceforth  more  on  her  own  precautions  than  on  his, 
as  we  find  her  communications  from  this  time  frequently 
shrouded  in  cipher. 

Rumors  of  Philip's  warlike  preparations  were  now 
rife  in  the  Netherlands ;  and  the  Protestants  began  to 
take  counsel  as  to  the  best  means  of  providing  for  their 
own  defence.  One  plan  suggested  was  to  send  thirty 
thousand  Calvinistic  tracts  to  Seville  for  distribution 
among  the  Spaniards. ^'^  This  would  raise  a  good  crop 
of  heresy,  and  give  the  king  work  to  do  in  his  own 
dominions.  It  would,  in  short,  be  carrying  the  war 
into  the  enemy's  country.  The  plan,  it  must  be  owned, 
had  the  merit  of  novelty. 

In  Holland  the  nobles  and  merchants  mutually  bound 
themselves  to  stand  by  one  another  in  asserting  the 
right  of  freedom  of  conscience. s'  Levies  went  forward 
briskly  in  Germany,  under  the  direction  of  Count  Louis 
of  Nassau.    It  was  attempted,  moreover,  to  interest  the 

54  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  474. 

55  Ibid.,  p.  491. 

56  Strad.i,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  282. 

57  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


SAGACITY    OF  ORANGE.  8l 

Protestant  princes  of  that  country  so  far  in  the  fate  of 
their  brethren  in  the  Netherlands  as  to  induce  them  to 
use  their  good  offices  with  Philip  to  dissuade  him  from 
violent  measures.  The  emperor  had  already  offered 
privately  his  own  mediation  to  the  king,  to  bring  about, 
if  possible,  a  better  understanding  with  his  Flemish 
subjects. 5^  The  offer  made  in  so  friendly  a  spirit, 
though  warmly  commended  by  some  of  the  council, 
seems  to  have  found  no  favor  in  the  eyes  of  their 
master.  59 

The  princes  of  Germany  who  had  embraced  the 
Reformation  were  Lutherans.  They  had  almost  as  little 
sympathy  with  the  Calvinists  as  with  the  Catholics. 
Men  of  liberal  minds  in  the  Netherlands,  like  William 
and  his  brother,  would  gladly  have  seen  the  two  great 
Protestant  parties  which  divided  their  country  united 
on  some  common  basis.  They  would  have  had  them, 
in  short,  in  a  true  Christian  spirit,  seek  out  the  points 
on  which  they  could  agree  rather  than  those  on  which 
they  differed, — points  of  difference  which,  in  William's 
estimation,  were  after  all  of  minor  importance.  He 
was  desirous  that  the  Calvinists  should  adopt  a  confes- 
sion of  faith  accommodated  in  some  degree  to  the 
**  Confession  of  Augsburg," — a  step  which  would 
greatly  promote  their  interests  with  the  princes  of 
Germany.*" 

But  the  Calvinists  were  altogether  the  dominant 
party  in  the  Low  Countries.  They  were  thoroughly 
organized,  and  held  their  consistories,  composed  of  a 

58  Hopper,  Recueil  et  Memorial,  p.  109. 

59  Ibid.,  p.  113. 

*o  Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  torn.  ii.  p.  391. 


82  THE   ICONOCLASTS. 

senate  and  a  sort  of  lower  house,  in  many  of  the  great 
towns,  all  subordinate  to  the  great  consistory  at  Ant- 
werp. They  formed,  in  short,  what  the  historian  well 
calls  an  independent  Protestant  republic.*'  Strong  in 
their  power,  sturdy  in  their  principles,  they  refused  to 
bend  in  any  degree  to  circumstances,  or  to  make  any 
concession  or  any  compromise  with  the  weaker  party. 
The  German  princes,  disgusted  with  this  conduct, 
showed  no  disposition  to  take  any  active  measures  in 
their  behalf,  and,  although  they  made  some  efforts  in 
favor  of  the  Lutherans,  left  their  Calvinistic  brethren 
in  the  Netherlands  to  their  fate. 

It  was  generally  understood  at  this  time  that  the 
prince  of  Orange  had  embraced  Lutheran  opinions. 
His  wife's  uncle,  the  landgrave  of  Hesse,  pressed  him 
publicly  to  avow  his  belief.  To  this  the  prince  objected 
that  he  should  thus  become  the  open  enemy  of  the 
Catholics,  and  probably  lose  his  influence  with  the  Cal- 
vinists,  already  too  well  disposed  to  acts  of  violence.*^ 
Yet  not  long  after  we  find  William  inquiring  of  the 
landgrave  if  it  would  not  be  well  to  advise  the  king,  in 
terms  as  little  offensive  as  possible,  of  his  change  of 
religion,  asking  the  royal  permission,  at  the  same  time, 
to  conform  his  worship  to  it.*^ 

William's  father  had  been  a  Lutheran,  and  in  that 
faith  had  lived  and  died.    In  that  faith  he  had  educated 

*'  "  Praetereh  consistoria,  id  est  senatus  ac  coetus,  multis  in  urbibus, 
sicuti  jam  Antverpije  ceeperant,  instituenint :  creatis  Magistratibus, 
Senatoribusque,  quorum  consiliis  (sed  ante&.  cum  Antverpiana  curia, 
■quam  esse  principem  voluere,  communicatis)  universa  hjereticorum 
Respub.  temperaretur."     Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  tom.  1.  p.  283. 

*«  Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  torn.  ii.  pp.  455,  456. 

'3  Ibid.,  p.  496. 


WILLIAM'S  RELIGIOUS   OPINIONS. 


S3 


his  son.  When  only  eleven  years  old,  the  latter,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  received  into  the  imperial  household. 
The  plastic  mind  of  boyhood  readily  took  its  impres- 
sions from  those  around,  and  without  much  difficulty, 
or  indeed  examination,  William  conformed  to  the  creed 
fashionable  at  the  court  of  Castile.  In  this  faith — if  so 
it  should  be  called — the  prince  remained  during  the 
lifetime  of  the  emperor.  Then  came  the  troubles  of 
the  Netherlands ;  and  William's  mind  yielded  to  other 
influences.  He  saw  the  workings  of  Catholicism  under 
a  terrible  aspect.  He  beheld  his  countrymen  dragged 
from  their  firesides,  driven  into  exile,  thrown  into 
dungeons,  burned  at  the  stake,  and  all  this  for  no 
other  cause  than  dissent  from  the  dogmas  of  the 
Romish  Church.  His  soul  sickened'  at  these  enormi- 
ties, and  his  indignation  kindled  at  this  invasion  of  the 
inalienable  right  of  private  judgment.  Thus  deeply 
interested  for  the  oppressed  Protestants,  it  was  natural 
that  William  should  feel  a  sympathy  for  their  cause. 
His  wife,  too,  was  a  Lutheran.  So  was  his  mother, 
still  surviving.  So  were  his  brothers  and  sisters,  and 
indeed  all  those  nearest  akin  to  him.  Under  these 
influences,  public  and  domestic,  it  was  not  strange  that 
he  should  have  been  led  to  review  the  grounds  of  his 
own  belief;  that  he  should  have  gradually  turned  to 
the  faith  of  his  parents, — the  faith  in  which  he  had 
been  nurtured  in  childhood.**     At  what  precise  period 

''4  I  quote  almost  the  words  of  William  in  his  famous  Apology', 
which  suggests  the  same  explanation  of  his  condvict  that  I  have  given 
in  the  text:  "  Car  puis  que  des  le  berceau  j'y  avois  este  nourry,  Mon- 
sieur mon  Pere  y  avoit  vescu,  y  estoit  mort,  ayant  chasse  de  ses 
Seigneuries  les  abus  de  I'Eglise,  qui  est-ce  qui  trouvera  estrange  si 
cette  doctrine  estoit  tellement  engravee  en  mon  c^"eur,  et  y  avoit  jettt^ 


84  THE   ICONOCLASTS. 

the  change  in  his  opinions  took  place  we  are  not  in- 
formed. But  his  letter  to  the  landgrave  of  Hesse,  in 
November,  1566,  affords,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  the 
earliest  evidence  that  exists,  under  his  own  hand,  that 
he  had  embraced  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation. 

telles  racines,  qu'en  son  temps  elle  est  venue  k  apporter  ses  fruits." 
Dumont,  Corps  diplomatique,  torn.  v.  part.  i.  p.  392. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

THE   regent's   authority   RE-ESTABLISHED. 

Reaction. — Appeal  to  Arms. — Tumult  in  Antweq^. — Siege  of  Valen- 
ciennes.— The  Government  triumphant. 

1566,  1567. 

The  excesses  of  the  iconoclasts,  like  most  excesses, 
recoiled  on  the  heads  of  those  who  committed  them. 
The  Roman  Catholic  members  of  the  league  withdrew, 
as  we  have  seen,  from  an  association  which  connected 
them,  however  remotely,  with  deeds  so  atrocious. 
Other  Catholics,  who  had  looked  with  no  unfriendly 
eye  on  the  revolution,  now  that  they  saw  it  was  to  go 
forward  over  the  ruins  of  their  religion,  were  only  eager 
to  show  their  detestation  of  it  and  their  loyalty  to  the 
government.  The  Lutherans,  who,  as  already  noticed, 
had  never  moved  in  much  harmony  with  the  Calvinists, 
were  anxious  to  throw  the  whole  blame  of  the  excesses 
on  the  rival  sect ;  and  thus  the  breach,  growing  wider 
and  wider  between  the  two  great  divisions  of  the  Prot- 
estants, worked  infinite  prejudice  to  the  common  cause 
of  reform.  Lastly,  men  like  Egmont,  who  from  patri- 
otic motives  had  been  led  to  dally  with  the  revolution 
in  its  infancy,  seeming  indeed  almost  ready  to  embrace 
it,  now  turned  coldly  away  and  hastened  to  make  their 
peace  with  the  regent. 

Margaret  felt  the  accession  of  strength  she  was  daily 
Philip.— Vol.  IT.  8  ( S5  ) 


S6    REGENT'S  AUTHORITY  RE-ESTABLISHED. 

deriving  from  these  divisions  of  her  enemies,  and  she 
was  not  slow  to  profit  by  it.  As  she  had  no  longer  con- 
fidence in  those  on  whom  she  had  hitherto  relied  for 
support,  she  was  now  obliged  to  rely  more  exclusively 
on  herself.  She  was  indefatigable  in  her  application  to 
business.  "  I  know  not,"  writes  her  secretary,  Armen- 
teros,  "how  the  regent  contrives  to  live,  amidst  the 
disgusts  and  difficulties  which  incessantly  beset  her. 
For  some  months  she  has  risen  before  dawn.  Every 
morning  and  evening,  sometimes  oftener,  she  calls  her 
council  together.  The  rest  of  the  day  and  night  she  is 
occupied  with  giving  audiences,  or  with  receiving  de- 
spatches and  letters,  or  in  answering  them." ' 

Margaret  now  bent  all  her  efforts  to  retrace  the  humil- 
iating path  into  Avhich  she  had  been  led,  and  to  re-estab- 
lish the  fallen  authority  of  the  crown.  If  she  did  not 
actually  revoke  the  concessions  wrung  from  her,  she 
was  careful  to  define  them  so  narrowly  that  they  should 
be  of  little  service  to  any  one.  She  wrote  to  the  gov- 
ernors of  the  provinces  that  her  license  for  public 
preaching  was  to  be  taken  literally,  and  was  by  no 
means  intended  to  cover  the  performance  of  other  re- 
ligious rites,  as  those  of  baptism,  marriage,  and  burial, 
which  she  understood  were  freely  practised  by  the  re- 
formed ministers.  She  published  an  edict  reciting  the 
terrible  penalties  of  the  law  against  all  offenders  in  this 

'  "  II  y  a  plus  de  trois  rnois,  qu'  elle  se  leve  avant  le  jour,  et  que  le 
plus  souvent  elle  tient  conseil  le  matin  et  le  soir;  et  tout  le  reste  de  la 
journee  et  de  la  nuit,  elle  le  consacre  k  donner  des  audiences,  k  lire 
les  lettres  et  les  avis  qui  arrivcnt  de  toutes  parts,  et  &.  determiner  les 
r^ponscs  k  y  faire."  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  496. 
— Sleep  seems  to  have  been  as  superfluous  to  Margaret  as  to  a  hero 
of  romance. 


REACTION. 


«7 


way,  and  she  enjoined  the  authorities  to  enforce  the 
execution  of  it  to  the  letter.' 

The  Protestants  loudly  complained  of  what  they 
termed  a  most  perfidious  policy  on  the  part  of  the 
regent.  'J'he  right  of  public  preaching,  they  said, 
naturally  included  that  of  performing  the  other  reli- 
gious ceremonies  of  the  Reformed  Church.  It  was  a 
cruel  mockery  to  allow  men  to  profess  a  religion  and 
yet  not  to  practise  the  rites  which  belong  to  it.  The 
construction  given  by  Margaret  to  her  edict  must  be 
admitted  to  savor  somewhat  of  the  spirit  of  that  given 
by  Portia  to  Shylock's  contract.  The  pound  of  flesh 
might  indeed  be  taken ;  but  if  so  much  as  a  drop  of 
blood  followed,  woe  to  him  that  took  it ! 

This  measure  was  succeeded  by  others  on  the  part  of 
the  government  of  a  still  more  decisive  character.  In- 
stead of  the  civil  magistracy,  Margaret  now  showed  her 
purpose  to  call  in  the  aid  of  a  strong  military  force  to 
execute  the  laws.  She  ordered  into  the  country  the 
levies  lately  raised  for  her  in  Germany.  These  she 
augmented  by  a  number  of  Walloon  regiments ;  and 
she  placed  them  under  the  command  of  Aremberg, 
Megen,  and  other  leaders  in  whom  she  confided.  She 
did  not  even  omit  the  prince  of  Orange,  for,  though 
Margaret  had  but  little  confidence  in  William,  she  did 
not  care  to  break  with  him.  To  the  provincial  gov- 
ernors she  wrote  to  strengthen  themselves  as  much  as 
possible  by  additional  recruits ;  and  she  ordered  them 
to  introduce  garrisons  into  such  places  as  had  shown 
favor  to  the  new  doctrines. 

The  province  of  Hainault  was  that  which  gave  the 

"  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  pp.  289,  290. 


88  REGENTS  AUTHORITY  REESTABLISHED. 

greatest  uneasiness  to  the  regent.  The  spirit  of  inde- 
pendence was  proverbially  high  among  the  people,  and 
the  neighborhood  of  France  gave  easy  access  to  the 
Huguenot  ministers,  who  reaped  an  abundant  harvest 
in  the  great  towns  of  that  district.  The  flourishing 
commercial  city  of  Valenciennes  was  particularly  tainted 
with  heresy.  Margaret  ordered  Philip  de  Noircarmes, 
governor  of  Hainault,  to  secure  the  obedience  of  the 
place  by  throwing  into  it  a  garrison  of  three  companies 
of  horse  and  as  many  of  foot. 

When  the  regent's  will  was  announced  to  the  people 
of  Valenciennes,  it  met  at  first  with  no  opposition. 
But  among  the  ministers  in  the  town  was  a  Frenchman 
named  La  Grange,  a  bold  enthusiast,  gifted  with  a  stir- 
ring eloquence,  which  gave  him  immense  ascendency 
over  the  masses.  This  man  told  the  people  that  to 
receive  a  garrison  would  be  the  death-blow  to  their 
liberties,  and  that  those  of  the  reformed  religion  would 
be  the  first  victims.  Thus  warned,  the  citizens  were 
now  even  more  unanimous  in  refusing  a  garrison  than 
they  had  before  been  in  their  consent  to  admit  one. 
Noircarmes,  though  much  surprised  by  this  sudden 
change,  gave  the  inhabitants  some  days  to  consider  the 
matter  before  placing  themselves  in  open  resistance  to 
the  government.  The  magistrates  and  some  of  the 
principal  persons  in  the  town  were  willing  to  obey 
his  requisition,  and  besought  La  Grange  to  prevail  on 
the  people  to  consent  to  it.  ''I  would  rather,"  replied 
the  high-spirited  preacher,  "that  my  tongue  should 
cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth,  and  that  I  should  be- 
come dumb  as  a  fish,  than  open  my  lips  to  persuade 
the  people  to  consent  to  so  cruel  and  outrageous  an 


REACTION.  89 

act." 3  Finding  the  inhabitants  still  obstinate,  the  gen- 
eral, by  Margaret's  orders,  proclaimed  the  city  to  be  in 
a  state  of  rebellion, — proscribed  the  persons  of  the  citi- 
zens as  traitors  to  their  sovereign,  and  confiscated  their 
property.  At  the  same  time,  active  preparations  were 
begun  for  laying  siege  to  the  place,  and  proclamation 
was  made  in  the  regent's  name,  prohibiting  the  people 
of  the  Netherlands  from  affording  any  aid,  by  counsel, 
arms,  or  money,  to  the  rebellious  city,  under  the  pen- 
alties incurred  by  treason. 

But  the  inhabitants  of  Valenciennes,  sustained  by 
the  promises  of  their  preacher,  were  nothing  daunted 
by  these  measures,  nor  by  the  formidable  show  of 
troops  which  Noircarmes  was  assembling  under  their 
walls.  Their  town  was  strongly  situated,  tolerably  well 
victualled  for  a  siege,  and  filled  with  a  population  of 
hardy  burghers  devoted  to  the  cause,  whose  spirits  were 
raised  by  the  exhortations  of  the  consistories  in  the 
neighboring  provinces  to  be  of  good  courage,  as  their 
brethren  would  speedily  come  to  their  relief. 

The  high-handed  measures  of  the  government  caused 
great  consternation  through  the  country,  especially 
among  those  of  the  reformed  religion.  A  brisk  corre- 
spondence went  on  between  the  members  of  the  league 
and  the  consistories.  Large  sums  were  raised  by  the 
merchants  well  affected  to  the  cause,  in  order  to  levy 
troops  in  Germany,  and  were  intrusted  to  Brederode 

3  "J'aimerais  mieux  que  malangue  fut  attachee  au  palais,  et  devenir 
muet,  comme  un  poisson,  que  d'ouvrir  la  bouche  pour  persuader  au 
peuple  chose  tant  cnielle  et  deraisonnable."  Chronique  contempo- 
raine,  cited  by  Gachard,  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p. 
561,  note. 

8* 


90 


REGENTS  AUTHORITY  RE-ESTABLISHED. 


for  the  purpose.  It  was  also  determined  that  a  last 
eifort  should  be  made  to  soften  the  duchess  by  means 
of  a  petition  which  that  chief,  at  the  head  of  four  hun- 
dred knights,  was  to  bear  to  Brussels.  But  Margaret 
had  had  enough  of  petitions,  and  she  bluntly  informed 
Brederode  that  if  he  came  in  that  guise  he  would  find 
the  gates  of  Brussels  shut  against  him. 

Still  the  sturdy  cavalier  was  not  to  be  balked  in  his 
purpose ;  and,  by  means  of  an  agent,  he  caused  the 
petition  to  be  laid  before  the  regent.  It  was  taken  up 
mainly  with  a  remonstrance  on  the  course  pursued  by 
Margaret,  so  much  at  variance  with  her  promises.  It 
particularly  enlarged  on  the  limitation  of  her  license 
for  public  preaching.  In  conclusion,  it  besought  the 
regent  to  revoke  her  edict,  to  disband  her  forces,  to 
raise  the  siege  of  Valenciennes,  and  to  respect  the 
agreement  she  had  made  with  the  league  ;  in  which 
case  they  were  ready  to  assure  her  of  their  support  in 
maintaining  order. 

Margaret  laid  the  document  before  her  council,  and 
on  the  sixteenth  of  February,  1567,  an  answer,  which 
might  be  rather  said  to  be  addressed  to  the  country  at 
large  than  to  Brederode,  was  published.  The  duchess 
intimated  her  surprise  that  any  mention  should  be  made 
of  the  league,  as  she  had  supposed  that  body  had  ceased 
to  exist,  since  so  many  of  its  members  had  been  but  too 
glad,  after  the  late  outrages,  to  make  their  peace  with 
the  government.  As  to  her  concession  of  public  preach- 
ing, it  could  hardly  be  contended  that  that  was  designed 
to  authorize  the  sectaries  to  lay  taxes,  levy  troops,  create 
magistrates,- and  to  perform,  among  other  religious  rites, 
that  of  marriage,  involving  the  transfer  of  large  amounts 


APPEAL    ro  ARMS. 


91 


of  property.  Slie  could  hardly  be  thought  mad  enough 
to  invest  them  with  powers  like  these.  She  admonished 
the  petitioners  not  to  compel  their  sovereign  to  forego 
his  native  benignity  of  disposition.  It  would  be  well 
for  them,  she  hinted,  to  give  less  heed  to  public  affairs, 
and  more  to  their  own ;  and  she  concluded  with  the 
assurance  that  she  would  take  good  care  that  the  ruin 
which  they  so  confidently  predicted  for  the  country 
should  not  be  brought  about  by  them.'' 

The  haughty  tone  of  the  reply  showed  too  plainly 
that  the  times  were  changed, — that  Margaret  was  now 
conscious  of  her  strength,  and  meant  to  use  it.  The 
confederates  felt  that  the  hour  had  come  for  action. 
To  retrace  their  steps  was  impossible.  Yet  their  pres- 
ent position  was  full  of  peril.  The  rumor  went  that 
King  Philip  was  soon  to  come,  at  the  head  of  a  power- 
ful force,  to  take  vengeance  on  his  enemies.  To  remain 
as  they  were,  without  resistance,  would  be  to  offer  their 
necks  to  the  stroke  of  the  executioner.  An  appeal  to 
arms  was  all  that  was  left  to  them.  This  was  accord- 
ingly resolved  on.  The  standard  of  revolt  was  raised. 
The  drum  beat  to  arms  in  the  towns  and  villages,  and  re- 
cruits were  everywhere  enlisted.  Count  Louis  was  busy 
in  enforcing  levies  in  Germany.  Brederode's  tov/n  of 
Viana  was  named  as  the  place  of  rendezvous.  That  chief 
was  now  in  his  element.  His  restless  spirit  delighted 
in  scenes  of  tumult.     He  had  busied  himself  in  strength- 

4  "  Suadere  itaque  illis,  lit  \  publicis  cert^  negotiis  abstineant,  ac 
res  quique  suas  in  posterum  curent :  neve  Regem  brevi  affucturum 
ingenitoe  benignitatis  oblivisci  cogant.  Se  quidem  omni  ope  curatu- 
ram,  ne,  qiiam  ipsi  ruinam  comminentur,  per  hsec  vulgi  turbamenta 
Belgium  patiatur."     Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  295. 


92 


JiEGEA'TS  AUTHORITY  RE-ESTABLISHED. 


ening  the  works  of  Viana  and  in  furnishing  it  with 
artillery  and  military  stores.  Thence  he  had  secretly 
passed  over  to  Amsterdam,  where  he  was  occupied  in 
organizing  resistance  among  the  people,  already,  by  their 
fondness  for  the  new  doctrines,  well  disposed  to  it. 

Hostilities  first  broke  out  in  Brabant,  where  Count 
Megen  was  foiled  in  an  attempt  on  Bois-le-Duc,  which 
had  refused  to  receive  a  garrison.  He  was  more  for- 
tunate in  an  expedition  against  the  refractory  city  of 
Utrecht,  which  surrendered  without  a  struggle  to  the 
royalist  chief. 

In  other  quarters  the  insurgents  were  not  idle.  A 
body  of  some  two  thousand  men,  under  Marnix,  lord 
of  Thoulouse,  "brother  of  the  famous  St.  Aldegonde, 
made  a  descent  on  the  island  of  Walcheren,  where  it 
was  supposed  Philip  would  land.  But  they  were  baf- 
fled in  their  attempts  on  this  place  by  tlie  loyalty  and 
valor  of  the  inhabitants.  Failing  in  this  scheme,  Thou- 
louse was  compelled  to  sail  up  the  Scheldt,  until  he 
reached  the  little  village  of  Austruweel,  about  a  league 
from  Antwerp.  There  he  disembarked  his  whole  force, 
and  took  up  his  quarters  in  the  dwellings  of  the  inhab- 
itants. From  this  place  he  sallied  out,  making  depre- 
dations on  the  adjoining  country,  burning  the  churches, 
sacking  the  convents,  and  causing  great  alarm  to  the 
magistrates  of  Antwerp  by  the  confidence  which  his 
presence  gave  to  the  reformed  party  in  that  city. 

Margaret  saw  the  necessity  of  dislodging  the  enemy 
without  delay  from  this  dangerous  position.  She  de- 
spatched a  body  of  Walloons  on  the  service,  under 
command  of  an  experienced  officer,  Philippe  de  Lan- 
noy,  lord  of  Beauvoir.     Her  orders  show  the  mood  she 


TUMULT  IN  ANTWERP. 


93 


was  in.  "They  are  miscreants,"  she  said,  ''who  have 
placed  themselves  beyond  the  pale  of  mercy.  Show 
them  no  mercy,  then,  but  exterminate  with  fire  and 
sword!" 5  Lannoy,  by  a  rapid  march,  arrived  at  Aus- 
truweel.  Though  taken  unawares,  Thoulonse  and  his 
men  made  a  gallant  resistance ;  and  a  fierce  action  took 
place  almost  under  the  walls  of  Antwerp. 

The  noise  of  the  musketry  soon  brought  the  citizens 
to  the  ramparts ;  and  the  dismay  of  the  Calvinists  was 
great  as  they  beheld  the  little  army  of  Thoulouse  thus 
closely  beset  by  their  enemies.  Furious  at  the  specta- 
cle, they  now  called  on  one  another  to  rush  to  the  res- 
cue of  their  friends.  Pouring  down  from  the  ramparts, 
they  hurried  to  the  gates  of  the  city.  But  the  gates 
were  locked.  This  had  been  done  by  the  order  of  the 
prince  of  Orange,  who  had  moreover  caused  a  bridge 
across  the  Scheldt  to  be  broken  down,  to  cut  off  all 
communication  between  the  city  and  the  camp  of 
Thoulouse. 

The  people  now  loudly  called  on  the  authorities  to 
deliver  up  the  keys,  demanding  for  what  purpose  the 
gates  were  closed.  Their  passions  were  kindled  to 
madness  by  the  sight  of  the  wife — now,  alas  !  the 
widow — of  Thoulouse,  who,  with  streaming  eyes  and 
dishevelled  hair,  rushing  wildly  into  the  crowd,  be- 
sought them  piteously  to  save  her  husband  and  their 
own  brethren  from  massacre. 

It  was  too  late.  After  a  short  though  stout  resist- 
ance, the  insurgents  had  been  driven  from  the  field, 

5  "  Nee  ullis  conditionibus  flecti  te  p)atere  ad  clementiam ;  sed  homi- 
nes scelestos,  atque  indeprecabile  supplicium  commeritos,  ferro  et 
igiii  quamprimum  dele."     Strada,  De  BelJo  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  300. 


94    REGENTS  AUTHORITY  RE-ESTABLISHED. 

and  taken  refuge  in  their  defences.  These  were  soon 
set  on  fire.  Thoulouse,  with  many  of  his  followers, 
perished  in  the  flames.  Others,  to  avoid  this  dreadful 
fate,  cut  their  way  through  the  enemy,  and  plunged 
into  the  Scheldt,  which  washes  the  base  of  the  high 
land  occupied  by  the  village.  There  they  miserably 
perished  in  its  waters,  or  were  pierced  by  the  lances  of 
the  enemy,  who  hovered  on  its  borders.  Fifteen  hun- 
dred were  slain.  Three  hundred,  who  survived,  sur- 
rendered themselves  prisoners.  But  Lannoy  feared  an 
attempt  at  rescue  from  the  neighboring  city;  and,  true 
to  the  orders  of  the  regent,  he  massacred  nearly  all  of 
them  o-n  the  spot !  * 

While  this  dismal  tragedy  was  passing,  the  mob  im- 
prisoned within  the  walls  of  Antwerp  was  raging  and 
bellowing  like  the  waves  of  the  ocean  chafing  wildly 
against  the  rocks  that  confine  them.  With  fierce  cries, 
they  demanded  that  the  gates  should  be  opened,  calling 
on  the  magistrates  with  bitter  imprecations  to  deliver 
up  the  keys.  The  magistrates  had  no  mind  to  face  the 
infuriated  populace.  But  the  prince  of  Orange  fortu- 
nately, at  this  crisis,  did  not  hesitate  to  throw  himself 
into  the  midst  of  the  tumult  and  take  on  himself  the 
whole  responsibility  of  the  affair.  It  was  by  his  com- 
mand that  the  gates  had  been  closed,  in  order  that  the 
regent's  troops,  if  victorious,  might  not  enter  the  city 
and  massacre  those  of  the  reformed  religion.     This 

*  "  Periere  in  ea  pugna,  qure  prima  cum  rebellibus  commissa  est  In 
Belgio,  Gheusionim  mille  ac  quingenti :  capti  circiter  trecenti,  jugu- 
latique  psen^  omnes  Beavorii  jussu,  quod  erupturi  Antverpienses, 
opemque  reliquiis  victre  factionis  allaturi  crederentur."  Strada,  De 
Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  301. 


TUMULT  IN  ANTWERP.  95 

plausible  explanation  did  not  satisfy  the  people.  Some 
called  out  that  the  true  motive  was,  not  to  save  the 
Calvinists  in  the  city,  but  to  prevent  their  assisting 
their  brethren  in  the  camp.  One  man,  more  audacious 
than  the  rest,  raised  a  musket  to  the  prince's  breast, 
saluting  him,  at  the  same  time,  with  the  epithet  of 
"traitor!"  But  the  fellow  received  no  support  from 
his  companions,  who,  in  general,  entertained  too  great 
respect  for  William  to  offer  any  violence  to  his  person 

Unable  to  appease  the  tumult,  the  prince  was  borne 
along  by  the  tide,  which  now  rolled  back  from  the  gates 
to  the  Meir  Bridge,  where  it  soon  received  such  acces- 
sions that  the  number  amounted  to  more  than  ten 
thousand.  The  wildest  schemes  were  then  agitated  by 
the  populace,  among  whom  no  one  appeared  to  take 
the  lead.  Some  were  for  seizing  the  Hotel  de  Ville  and 
turning  out  the  magistrates.  Others  were  for  sacking 
the  convents,  and  driving  their  inmates,  as  well  as  all 
priests,  from  the  city.  Meanwhile,  they  had  got  pos- 
session of  some  pieces  of  artillery  from  the  arsenal, 
with  which  they  fortified  the  bridge.  Thus  passed  the 
long  night, — the  armed  multitude  gathered  together 
'like  a  dark  cloud,  ready  at  any  moment  to  burst  in  fury 
on  the  city,  while  the  defenceless  burghers,  especially 
those  who  had  any  property  at  stake,  were  filled  with 
the  most  dismal  apprehensions. 

Yet  the  Catholics  contrived  to  convey  some  casks  of 
powder,  it  is  said,  under  the  Meir  Bridge,  resolving  to 
blow  it  into  the  air,  with  all  upon  it,  as  soon  as  their 
enemies  should  make  a  hostile  movement. 

All  eyes  were  now  turned  on  the  prince  of  Orange, 
as  the  only  man  at  all  capable  of  extricating  them  from 


96    REGENTS  AUTHORITY  RE-ESTABLISHED. 

their  perilous  situation.  William  had  stationed  a  guard 
over  the  mint,  and  another  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  to  pro- 
tect these  buildings  from  the  populace.  A  great  part 
of  this  anxious  night  he  spent  in  endeavoring  to  bring 
about  such  an  understanding  between  the  two  great 
parties  of  the  Catholics  and  the  Lutherans  as  should 
enable  them  to  act  in  concert.  This  v/as  the  less  diffi- 
cult on  account  of  the  jealousy  which  the  latter  sect 
entertained  of  the  Calvinists.  The  force  thus  raised 
was  swelled  by  the  accession  of  the  principal  merchants 
and  men  of  substance,  as  well  as  most  of  the  foreigners 
resident  in  the  city,  who  had  less  concern  -for  spiritual 
matters  than  for  the  security  of  life  and  fortune.  The 
following  morning  beheld  the  mob  of  Calvinists  formed 
into  something  like  a  military  array,  their  green  and 
white  banners  bravely  unfurled,  and  the  cannon  which 
they  had  taken  from  the  arsenal  posted  in  front.  On 
the  opposite  side  of  the  great  square  before  the  Hotel  de 
Ville  were  gathered  the  forces  of  the  prince  of  Orange, 
which,  if  wanting  artillery,  were  considerably  superior 
in  numbers  to  their  adversaries.  The  two  hosts  now 
stood  face  to  face,  as  if  waiting  only  the  signal  to  join 
in  mortal  conflict.  But  no  man  was  found  bold  enough 
to  give  the  signal  for  brother  to  lift  his  hand  against 
brother.* 

*  [Some  of  the  particulars  in  the  foregoing  account  seem  open  to 
doubt.  According  to  other  relations,  the  bridge  destroyed  by  Orange 
was  merely  one  of  the  drawbridges  of  the  fortifications,  and  the 
assembly  Ckf  the  people  took  place  in  the  Place  de  Meir,  which  is  not 
near  the  Scheldt.  Yet,  as  Austruweel  lies  on  the  opposite  bank,  the 
threatened  egress  must  have  been  in  the  direction  of  the  river.  Guic- 
ciardini,  in  his  minute  description  of  Antwerp,  makes  no  mention  of 
a  bridge,  though  one  is  figured  in  his  plan  of  the  city. — ED.] 


TUMULT  IN  ANTWERP. 


97 


At  this  juncture  William,  with  a  small  guard,  and 
accompanied  by  the  principal  magistrates,  crossed  over 
to  the  enemy's  ranks  and  demanded  an  interview  with 
the  leaders.  He  represented  to  them  the  madness  of 
their  present  course,  which,  even  if  they  were  victori- 
ous, must  work  infinite  mischief  to  the  cause.  It  would 
be  easy  for  them  to  obtain  by  fair  means  all  they  could 
propose  by  violence ;  and  for  his  own  part,  he  con- 
cluded, however  well  disposed  to  them  he  now  might 
be,  if  a  single  drop  of  blood  were  shed  in  this  quarrel, 
he  would  hold  them  from  that  hour  as  enemies. 

The  remonstrance  of  the  prince,  aided  by  the  con- 
viction of  their  own  inferiority  in  numbers,  prevailed 
over  the  stubborn  temper  of  the  Calvinists.  They 
agreed  to  an  accommodation,  one  of  the  articles  of 
which  was  that  no  garrison  should  be  admitted  within 
the  city.  The  prince  of  Orange  subscribed  and  swore 
to  the  treaty,  on  behalf  of  his  party ;  and  it  is  proof 
of  the  confidence  that  even  the  Calvinists  reposed  in 
him,  that  they  laid  down  their  arms  sooner  than  either 
the  Lutherans  or  the  Catholics.  Both  these,  however, 
speedily  followed  their  example.  The  martial  array 
which  had  assumed  so  menacing  an  aspect  soon  melted 
away.  The  soldier  of  an  hour,  subsiding  into  the  quiet 
burgher,  went  about  his  usual  business ;  and  tranquillity 
and  order  once  more  reigned  within  the  walls  of  Ant- 
werp. Thus  by  the  coolness  and  discretion  of  a  single 
man  the  finest  city  in  the  Netherlands  was  saved  from 
irretrievable  ruin.^ 

7  For  the  account  of  the  troubles  in  Antwerp,  see  Correspondance 
de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  226,  et  seq. — Archives  de  la  Maison 
d' Orange-Nassau,  torn.  iii.  p.  59. — Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i. 
Philip. — Vol.  II.— e  9 


pS    REGENT'S  AUTHORITY  RE-ESTABLISHED.     , 

It  was  about  the  middle  of  March,  1567,  that  the 
disturbances  occurred  at  Antwerp.  During  this  time 
Noircarmes  was  enforcing  the  blockade  of  Valenciennes, 
but  with  little  prospect  of  bringing  it  to  a  speedy  issue. 
The  inhabitants,  confident  in  their  strength,  had  made 
iBore  than  one  successful  sally,  burning  the  cloisters  in 
which  the  general  had  lodged  part  of  his  troops,  and 
carrying  back  considerable  booty  into  the  city.  It  was 
evident  that  to  reduce  the  place  by  blockade  would  be 
a  work  of  no  little  time. 

Margaret  wrote  to  her  brother  to  obtain  his  permission 
to  resort  to  more  vigorous  measures,  and,  without  further 
delay,  to  bombard  the  place.  But  Philip  peremptorily 
refused.  It  was  much  to  his  regret,  he  said,  that  the 
siege  of  so  fair  a  city  had  been  undertaken.  Since  it 
had  been,  nothing  remained  but  to  trust  to  a  blockade 
for  its  reduction.* 

At  this  time  an  army  of  the  confederates,  some  three 
or  four  thousand  strong,  appeared  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Tournay,  designed  partly  to  protect  that  town,  which 
had  refused  a  garrison,  and  partly  to  create  a  diversion 
in  favor  of  Valenciennes.  No  sooner  had  Noircarmes 
got  tidings  of  this,  than,  leaving  a  sufficient  detachment 
to  carry  on  the  blockade,  he  made  a  rapid  march  with 
the  rest  of  his  forces,  came  suddenly  on  the  enemy, 
engaged  him  in  a  pitched  battle,  completely  routed  him, 
and  drove  his  scattered  legions  up  to  the  walls  of  Tour- 

pp.  300-303. — Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  vol.  i.  p. 
247. — Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  pp.  526,  527. — Vander 
Haer,  De  Initiis  Tumultuum,  pp.  314-317. — Renom  de  Francia,  Al- 
borotos  de  Flandes,  MS. 

*  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  310. 


SIEGE    OF   VALENCIENNES. 


99 


nay.  That  city,  now  incapable  of  resistance,  opened 
its  gates  at  once,  and  submitted  to  the  terms  of  the 
conqueror,  who  soon  returned,  with  his  victorious  army, 
to  resume  the  siege  of  Valenciennes. 

But  the  confidence  of  the  inhabitants  was  not  shaken. 
On  the  contrary,  under  the  delusive  promises  of  their 
preacher,  it  seemed  to  rise  higher  than  ever,  and  they 
rejected  with  scorn  every  invitation  to  surrender.  Again 
the  regent  wrote  to  her  brother  that  unless  he  allowed 
more  active  operations,  there  was  great  danger  the  place 
would  be  relieved  by  the  Huguenots  on  the  frontier,  or 
by  the  Gueux,  whose  troops  were  scattered  through  the 
country. 

Urged  by  the  last  consideration,  Philip  yielded  a 
reluctant  assent  to  his  sister's  wishes.  But  in  his  letter, 
dated  on  the  thirteenth  of  March,  he  insisted  that,  be- 
fore resorting  to  violence,  persuasion  and  menace  should 
be  first  tried,  and  that,  in  case  of  an  assault,  great  care 
should  be  had  that  no  harm  came  to  the  old  and  infirm, 
to  women  or  children,  to  any,  in  short,  who  were  not 
found  actually  in  arms  against  the  government.'  The 
clemency  shown  by  Philip  on  this  occasion  reflects  infi- 
nite credit  on  him ;  and  if  it  be  disposed  of  by  some 
as  mere  policy,  it  must  be  allowed  to  be  a  policy  near 
akin  to  humanity.  It  forms  a  striking  contrast  with  the 
ferocious  mood  in  which  Margaret  indulged  at  this 
time,  when  she  seems  to  have  felt  that  a  long  arrear  of 

9  Strada  gives  an  extract  from  the  letter:  "  Deinde  si  deditio  non 
sequeretur,  invaderent  quidem  urbem,  quodque  militum  est,  agerent; 
^  CEedibus  tamen  non  puerorum  modd,  seniimque  ac  mulierum  absti- 
nerent ;  sed  civium  nullus,  nisi  dum  inter  propugnandum  se  hostem 
gereret,  enccaretur."     Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  311. 


I oo      REGENTS  A UTHORITy  RE-ESTABLISHED. 

vengeance  was  due  for  the  humiliations  she  had  been 
compelled  to  endure. 

The  regent  lost  no  time  in  profiting  by  the  royal 
license.  She  first,  however,  proposed,  in  obedience  to 
her  instructions,  to  see  what  could  be  done  by  milder 
measures.  She  sent  two  envoys,  Count  Egmont  and 
the  duke  of  Aerschot,  to  Valenciennes,  in  order  to 
expostulate  with  the  citizens  and  if  possible  bring  them 
to  reason.  The  two  nobles  represented  to  the  people 
the  folly  of  attempting  to  cope,  thus  single-handed,  as 
it  were,  with  the  government.  Their  allies  had  been 
discomfited  one  after  another.  With  the  defeat  before 
Tournay  must  have  faded  the  last  ray  of  hope.  They 
besought  the  citizens  to  accept,  while  there  was  time, 
the  grace  proffered  them  by  the  duchess,  who  was 
willing,  if  the  town  submitted,  that  such  as  chose  to 
leave  it  might  take  their  effects  and  go  wherever  they 
listed. 

But  the  people  of  Valenciennes,  fortified  by  the 
promises  of  their  leaders,  and  with  a  blind  confidence 
in  their  own  resources,  which  had  hitherto  proved 
effectual,  held  lightly  both  the  arguments  and  offers 
of  the  envoys,  who  returned  to  the  camp  of  Noircarmes 
greatly  disgusted  with  the  ill  success  of  their  mission. 
There  was  no  room  for  further  delay,  and  preparations 
were  made  for  reducing  the  place  by  more  active 
operations. 

Valenciennes  stands  on  the  crest  of  an  eminence 
that  sweeps  down  by  a  gradual  slope  towards  the  river 
Scheldt,  which,  washing  the  walls  of  the  city,  forms  a 
good  defence  on  that  quarter.  The  ramparts  encom- 
passing the  town,  originally  strong  and  of  great  thick- 


SIEGE    OF    VALENCIENNES.  loi 

Bess,  were  now  somewhat  impaired  by  age.  -They  were 
protected  by  a  wide  ditch,  which  in  some  places  was 
partially  choked  up  with  rubbish.  The  walls  were  well 
lined  with  artillery,  and  the  magazines  provided  with 
ammunition.  In  short,  the  place  was  one  which  in 
earlier  days,  from  the  strength  of  its  works  as  well  as 
its  natural  position,  might  have  embarrassed  an  army 
more  formidable  than  that  which  now  lay  before  it. 

The  first  step  of  Noircarmes  was  to  contract  his  lines 
and  closely  to  invest  the  town.  He  next  availed  him- 
self of  a  dark  and  stormy  night  to  attack  one  of  the 
suburbs,  which  he  carried  after  a  sharp  engagement  and 
left  in  the  charge  of  some  companies  of  Walloons. 

The  following  day  these  troops  opened  a  brisk  fire 
on  the  soldiers  who  defended  the  ramparts,  which  was 
returned  by  the  latter  with  equal  spirit.  But,  while 
amusing  the  enemy  in  this  quarter,  Noircarmes  ordered 
a  battery  to  be  constructed,  consisting  at  first  of  ten, 
afterwards  of  twenty,-  heavy  guns  and  mortars,  besides 
some  lighter  pieces.  From  this  battery  he  opened  a 
well-directed  and  most  disastrous  fire  on  the  city,  de- 
molishing some  of  the  principal  edifices,  which,  from 
their  size,  afforded  a  prominent  mark.  The  great 
tower  of.  St.  Nicholas,  on  which  some  heavy  ordnance 
was  planted,  soon  crumbled  under  this  fierce  can- 
nonade, and  its  defenders  were  buried  in  its  ruins. 
At  length,  at  the  end  of  four  hours,  the  inhabitants, 
unable  longer  to  endure  the  storm  of  shot  and  shells 
which  penetrated  every  quarter  of  the  town,  so  far 
humbled  their  pride  as  to  request  a  parley.  To  this 
Noircarmes  assented,  but  without  intermitting  his  fire 
for  a  moment. 

9* 


102      REGENTS  AUTHORITY  RE-ESTABLISHED. 

The  deputies  informed  the  general  that  the  city  was 
willing  to  capitulate  on  the  terms  before  proposed  by 
the  Flemish  nobles.  But  Noircarmes  contemptuously 
told  them  that  "  things  were  not  now  as  they  then  were, 
and  it  was  not  his  wont  to  talk  of  terms  with  a  fallen 
enemy.""  The  deputies,  greatly  discomfited  by  the 
reply,  returned  to  report  the  failure  of  their  mission  to 
their  townsmen. 

Meanwhile  the  iron  tempest  continued  with  pitiless 
fury.  The  wretched  people  could  find  no  refuge  from 
it  in  their  dwellings,  which  filled  the  streets  with  their 
ruins.  It  was  not,  however,  till  two-and-thirty  hours 
more  had  passed  away  that  a  practicable  breach  was 
made  in  the  walls ;  while  the  rubbish  which  had  tumbled 
into  the  fosse  from  the  crumbling  ramparts  afforded  a 
tolerable  passage  for  the  besiegers,  on  a  level  nearly 
with  the  breach  itself.  By  this  passage  Noircarmes 
now  prepared  to  march  into  the  city,  through  the  open 
breach,  at  the  head  of  his  battalions. 

The  people  of  Valenciennes  too  late  awoke  from  their 
delusion.  They  were  no  longer  cheered  by  the  voice 
of  their  fanatical  leader,  for  he  had  provided  for  his 
own  safety  by  flight ;  and,  preferring  any  fate  to  that 
of  being  delivered  ovei"  to  the  ruthless  soldiery  of  Noir- 
carmes, they  offered  at  once  to  surrender  the  town  at 
discretion,  throwing  themselves  on  the  mercy  of  their 
victor.  Six-and-thirty  hours  only  had  elapsed  since  the 
batteries  of  the  besiegers  had  opened  their  fire,  and 
during  that  time  three  thousand  bombs  had  been  thrown 

'°  "  Quasi  ver6,  inquit,  vestra  conditio  eadem  hodie  sit,  ac  nudius- 
tertius.  Serd  sapitis  Valencenatcs :  ego  cert^  conditionibus  non 
transigo  cadente  cum  hoste."  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  314. 


THE    GOVERNMENT  TRIUMPHANT. 


103 


into  the  city ; "  which  was  thought  scarcely  less  than  a 
miracle  in  that  day. 

On  the  second  of  April,  1567,  just  four  months  after 
the  commencement  of  the  siege,  the  victorious  army 
marched  into  Valenciennes.  As  it  defiled  through  the 
long  and  narrow  streets,  which  showed  signs  of  the 
dismal  fray  in  their  shattered  edifices  and  in  the  dead 
and  dying  still  stretched  on  the  pavement,  it  was  met 
by  troops  of  women  and  young  maidens  bearing  green 
branches  in  their  hands  and  deprecating  with  tears  and 
piteous  lamentations  the  wrath  of  the  conquerors.  Noir- 
carmes  marched  at  once  to  the  town -house,  where  he 
speedily  relieved  the  municipal  functionaries  of  all  re- 
sponsibility, by  turning  them  out  of  office.  His  next 
care  was  to  seize  the  persons  of  the  zealous  ministers 
and  the  other  leaders.  Many  had  already  contrived  to 
make  their  escape.  Most  of  these  were  soon  after  taken, 
the  preacher  La  Grange  among  the  rest,  and  to  the 
number  of  thirty-six  were  sentenced  either  to  the  scaffold 
or  the  gallows.'^     The  general  then  caused  the  citizens 

"  "  Feruntque  ter  millies  explosas  murales  machinas,  moenium  qu^m 
hominum  majori  strage."     Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  314.* 

"  So  states  Margaret's  historian,  who  would  not  be  likely  to  exag- 
gerate the  number  of  those  who  suffered.  The  loyal  president  of 
Mechlin  dismisses  the  matter  more  summarily,  without  specifying  any 
number  of  victims:  "El  sefior  de  Noilcarmes  se  aseguro  de  muchos 
prisioneros  principales  Borgeses  y  de  otros  que  avian  sido  los  autores. 
de  la  rebelion,  a  los  quales  se  hizo  luego  en  diligencia  su  pleyto." 
(Renom  de  Francia,  Alborotos  de  Flandes,  MS.)  Brandt,  the  his- 
torian of  the  Reformation  (vol.  i.  p.  251),  tells  us  that  two  hundred 
were  said  to  have  perished  by  the  hands  of  the  hangman  at  Valen- 


*  [The  "murales  machinas,"  "  bombardse,"  etc.,  mentioned  by 
Strada,  were  merely  cannon  of  the  different  kinds  then  in  use.  Bomb- 
shells were  not  invented  till  later. — Ed.] 


I04 


REGENT'S  AUTHORITY  RE-ESTABLISHED. 


to  be  disarmed,  and  the  fortifications,  on  which  were 
mounted  eighty  pieces  of  artillery,  to  be  dismantled. 
The  town  was  deprived  of  its  privileges  and  immunities, 
and  a  heavy  fine  imposed  on  the  inhabitants  to  defray 
the  charges  of  the  war.  The  Protestant  worship  was 
abolished,  the  churches  were  restored  to  their  former 
occupants,  and  none  but  the  Roman  Catholic  service 
was  allowed  henceforth  to  be  performed  in  the  city. 

The  bishop  of  Arras  was  invited  to  watch  over  the 
spiritual  concerns  of  the  inhabitants,  and  a  strong  gar- 
rison of  eight  battalions  was  quartered  in  the  place,  to 
secure  order  and  maintain  the  authority  of  the  crown. ^^ 

The  keys  of  Valenciennes,  it  was  commonly  said, 
opened  to  the  regent  the  gates  of  all  the  refractory 
cities  of  the  Netherlands.  IMaestricht,  Turnhout,  Ghent, 
Ypres,  Oudenarde,  and  other  places  which  had  refused 
to  admit  a  garrison  within  their  walls,  now  surrendered, 
one  after  another,  to  Margaret,  and  consented  to  receive 
her  terms.  In  like  manner  Megen  established  the  royal 
authority  in  the  province  of  Gueldres,  and  Aremberg, 
after  a  more  prolonged  resistance,  in  Groningen  and 
Friesland.  In  a  few  weeks,  with  the  exception  of  Ant- 
werp and  some  places  in  Holland,  the  victorious  arms  of 
the  regent  had  subdued  the  spirit  of  resistance  in  every 
part  of  the  country.'*  The  movement  of  the  insur- 
gents had  been  premature. 

ciennes,  on  account  of  the  religious  troubles,  in  the  course  of  this 
year. 

'3  For  information,  more  or  less  minute,  in  regard  to  the  siege  of 
Valenciennes,  see  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  pp.  303-315. — 
Vander  Haer,  De  Initiis  Tumultuum,  pp.  319-322. — Meteren,  Hist. 
des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  49. — Correspondance  de  Guillaume  le  Taciturne, 
torn.  ii.  p.  501. — Renom  de  Francia,  Alborotos  de  Flandes,  MS. 

M  Strada,  De  BcUo  Belgico,  torn.  i.  pp.  315,  323,  et  seq. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

TRANQUILLITY   RESTORED. 

Oath  imposed  by  Margaret. — Refused  by  Orange. — He  leaves  the 
Netherlands. — Submission  of  the  Country. — New  Edict. — Order 
restored. 

1567. 

The  perplexities  in  which  the  regent  had  been  in- 
volved had  led  her  to  conceive  a  plan,  early  in  January, 
1567,  the  idea  of  which  may  have  been  suggested  by  the 
similar  plan  of  Viglius.  This  was  to  require  an  oath 
from  the  great  nobles,  the  knights  of  the  Golden  Fleece, 
and  those  in  high  stations,  civil  or  military,  that  they 
would  yield  implicit  and  unqualified  obedience  to  the 
commands  of  the  king,  of  whatever  nature  they  might 
be.  Her  object  in  this  measure  was  not  to  secure  a  test 
of  loyalty.  She  knew  full  well  who  were  the  friends 
and  who  were  the  foes  of  the  government.  But  she 
wished  a  decent  apology  for  ridding  herself  of  the  latter ; 
and  it  was  made  a  condition  that  those  who  refused  to 
take  the  oath  were  to  be  dismissed  from  office. 

The  measure  seems  to  have  met  with  no  opposition 
when  first  started  in  the  council ;  where  Mansfeldt, 
Aerschot,  Megen,  Barlaimont,  all  signified  their  readi- 
ness to  sign  the  oath.  Egmont  indeed  raised  some 
scruples.  After  the  oath  of  allegiance  he  had  once 
taken,  a  new  one  seemed  superfluous.  The  bare  word 
of  a  man  of  honor  and  a  chevalier  of  the  Toison  ought 
E*  (  105  ) 


lo6  TRANQUILLITY  RESTORED. 

to  suffice.'  But,  after  a  short  correspondence  on  the 
subject,  his  scruples  vanished  before  the  arguments  or 
persuasions  of  the  regent. 

Brederode,  who  held  a  military  command,  was  not 
of  so  accommodating  a  temper.  He  indignantly  ex- 
claimed that  it  was  a  base  trick  of  the  government,  and 
he  understood  the  drift  of  it.  He  refused  to  subscribe 
the  oath,  and  at  once  threw  up  his  commission.  The 
Counts  Hoorne  and  Hoogstraten  declined  also,  but  in 
more  temperate  terms,  and,  resigning  their  employ- 
ments, withdrew  to  their  estates  in  the  country. 

The  person  of  most  importance  was  the  prince  of 
Orange,  and  it  was  necessary  to  approach  him  with  the 
greatest  caution.  Margaret,  it  is  true,  had  long  since 
withdrawn  from  him  her  confidence.  But  he  had  too 
much  consideration  and  authority  in  the  country  for  her 
to  wish  to  break  with  him.  Nor  would  she  willingly 
give  him  cause  of  disgust.  She  accordingly  addressed 
him  a  note,  couched  in  the  most  insinuating  terms  she 
had  at  her  command. 

She  could  not  doubt  he  would  be  ready  to  set  a  good 
example,  when  his  example  would  be  so  important  in 
the  perplexed  condition  of  the  country.  Rumors  had 
been  circulated  to  the  prejudice  of  his  loyalty.  She 
did  not  give  them  credit.  She  could  not  for  a  moment 
believe  that  he  would  so  far  dishonor  his  great  name 
and  his  illustrious  descent  as  to   deserve  such   a  re- 

'  "  II  ne  comprenait  pas  pourquoi  la  gouvernante  insistait,  apr^s 
qu'il  lui  avait  6crit  une  lettre  de  sa  main,  contenant  tout  ce  que  S.  A. 
pouvait  d^sirer  d'un  gentilhomme  d'honneur,  chevalier  de  I'Ordre, 
naturel  vassal  du  Roi,  et  qui  toute  sa  vie  avait  fait  le  devoir  d'homme 
de  bien,  comme  il  le  faisait  encore  journellement."  Correspondance 
de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  321. 


OATH  REFUSED  BY  ORANGE. 


107 


proach;  and  she  had  no  doubt  he  would  gladly  avail 
himself  of  the  present  occasion  to  wipe  away  all  sus- 
picion.' 

The  despatch  enclosed  a  form  of  the  oath,  by  which 
the  party  was  to  bind  himself  to  "serve  the  king,  and 
act  for  or  against  whomever  his  majesty  might  com- 
mand, without  restriction  or  limitation,"  ^  on  pain  of 
being  dismissed  from  office. 

William  was  not  long  in  replying  to  a  requisition  to 
obey  which  would  leave  him  less  freedom  than  might 
be  claimed  by  the  meanest  peasant  in  the  country.  On 
the  twenty-eighth  of  April,  the  same  day  on  which  he 
received  the  letter,  he  wrote  to  the  regent,  declining  in 
the  most  positive  terms  to  take  the  oath.  Such  an  act, 
he  said,  would  of  itself  imply  that  he  had  already  vio- 
lated the  oath  he  had  previously  taken.  Nor  could  he 
honorably  take  it,  since  it  might  bind  him  to  do  what 
would  be  contrary  to  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience, 
as  well  as  to  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  true  interests 
of  his  majesty  and  the  country."*  He  was  aware  that 
such  a  demand  on  the  regent's  part  was  equivalent  to  a 
dismissal  from  office.     He  begged  her,  therefore,  to 

=»  "  Ferez  cesser  les  calumnies  que  dictes  se  semer  centre  vous,  en- 
samble  tous  ces  bruits  que  scavez  courrir  de  vous,  encoires  que  en 
mon  endroict  je  les  tiens  faulx  at  que  \  tort  lis  se  dyent;  ne  pouvant 
croire  que  en  ung  cceur  noble  et  de  telle  extraction  que  vous  estes, 
successeur  des  Seigneurs,"  etc.  Archives  de  la  Maison  d' Orange- 
Nassau,  torn.  iii.  p.  44. 

3  "  Servir  et  m'employer  envers  et  contra  tous,  et  comme  me  sera 
ordonne  de  sa  part,  sans-  limitation  ou  restrinction."  Ibid.,  ubi 
supra. 

4  "  Je  seroys  aulcunement  oblige  et  constrainct,  le  cas  advenant, 
que  on  me  viendroict  \  commander  chose  qui  pourroit  venir  contra 
ma  conscience  ou  au  desarvice  de  Sa  Ma'-^'  at  du  pays."     Ibid.,  p.  46. 


Io8  TRANQUILLITY  RESTORED. 

send  some  one  fully  empowered  to  receive  his  commis- 
sions, since  he  was  ready  forthwith  to  surrender  them. 
As  for  himself,  he  should  withdraw  from  the  Nether- 
lands and  wait  until  his  sovereign  had  time  to  become 
satisfied  of  his  fidelity.  But,  wherever  he  might  be,  he 
should  ever  be  ready  to  devote  both  life  and  property 
to  the  service  of  the  king  and  the  common  weal  of  the 
country.^ 

Whatever  hesitation  the  prince  of  Orange  may  have 
before  felt  as  to  the  course  he  was  to  take,  it  was  clear 
the  time  had  now  come  for  decisive  action.  Though 
the  steady  advocate  of  political  reform,  his  policy,  as 
we  have  seen,  had  been  to  attempt  this  by  constitu- 
tional methods,  not  by  violence.  But  all  his  more 
moderate  plans  had  been  overthrown  by  the  explosion 
of  the  iconoclasts.  The  outrages  then  perpetrated  had 
both  alienated  the  Catholics  and  disgusted  the  more 
moderate  portion  of  the  Protestants;  while  the  divisions 
of  the  Protestants  among  themselves  had  so  far  para- 
lyzed their  action  that  the  whole  strength  of  the  party 
of  reform  had  never  been  fairly  exerted  in  the  conflict. 
That  conflict,  unprepared  as  the  nation  was  for  it,  had 
been  most  disastrous.  Everywhere  the  arms  of  the  re- 
gent had  been  victorious.  It  was  evident  the  hour  for 
resistance  had  not  yet  come. 

Yet  for  William  to  remain  in  his  present  position 
was  hazardous  in  the  extreme.  Rumors  had  gone 
abroad  that  the  duke  of  Alva  would  soon  be  in  the 
Netherlands,  at  the  head  af  a  force  sufficient  to  put 

5  "  Vous  asseurant  que,  ou  que  seray,  n'espargneray  jamais  mon 
corps  ni  mon  bien  pour  le  service  de  Sa  Ma'=  et  le  bien  commun  de 
ces  pays."    Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  torn.  iii.  p.  47. 


OATH  REFUSED   BY  ORANGE. 


109 


down  all  opposition.  "Beware  of  Alva,"  said  his 
wife's  kinsman,  the  landgrave  of  Hesse,  to  William ; 
"I  know  him  well."^  The  prince  of  Orange  also 
knew  him  well, — too  well  to  trust  him.  He  knew  the 
hard,  inexorable  nature  of  the  man  who  was  now  com- 
ing with  an  army  at  his  back  and  clothed  with  the 
twofold  authority  of  judge  and  executioner.  The  first 
blow  would,  he  knew,  be  aimed  at  the  highest  mark. 
To  await  Alva's  coming  would  be  to  provoke  his  fate. 
Yet  the  prince  felt  all  the  dreariness  of  his  situation. 
"I  am  alone,"  he  wrote  to  the  Landgrave  William  of 
Hesse,  "with  dangers  menacing  me  on  all  sides,  yet 
without  one  trusty  friend  to  whom  I  can  open  my 
heart.  "7 

Margaret  seems  to  have  been  less  prepared  than 
might  have  been  expected  for  the  decision  of  Orange. 
Yet  she  determined  not  to  let  him  depart  from  the 
country  without  an  effort  to  retain  him.  She  accord- 
ingly sent  her  secretary,  Berty,  to  the  prince  at  Ant- 
werp, to  enter  into  the  matter  more  freely,  and,  if  pos- 
sible, prevail  on  him  to  review  the  grounds  of  his  de- 
cision. William  freely,  and  at  some  length,  stated  his 
reasons  for  declining  the  oath.  "If  I  thus  blindly  sur- 
render myself  to  the  will  of  the  king,  I  may  be  driven 
to  do  what  is  most  repugnant  to  my  principles,  especi- 
ally in  the  stern  mode  of  dealing  with  the  sectaries.  I 
may  be  compelled  to  denounce  some  of  my  own  family, 

*  Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  torn.  iii.  p.  42. 

7  "  In  ansehung  das  wir  in  dissen  landen  allein  seindt,  und  in  hoch- 
sten  noten  und  gefehrden  leibs  und  lebens  stecken,  und  keinen  ver- 
trauwen  freundt  umb  uns  haben,  deme  wir  unser  gemiithe  und  hertz 
recht  eroffnen  dorffen."     Ibid.,  p.  39. 
Philip.— Vol.  II.  10 


no  TRANQUILLITY  RESTORED. 

even  my  -wife,  as  Lutherans,  and  to  deliver  them  into 
the  liands  of  the  executioner.  Finally,"  said  he,  "the 
king  may  send  some  one  in  his  royal  name  to  rule  over 
us,  to  whom  it  would  be  derogatory  for  me  to  submit." 
The  name  of  "Alva"  escaped,  as  if  involuntarily,  from 
his  lips, — and  he  was  silent.^ 

Berty  endeavored  to  answer  the  objections  of  the 
prince,  but  the  latter,  interrupting  him  before  he  had 
touched  on  the  duke  of  Alva,  bluntly  declared  that  the 
king  would  never  be  content  while  one  of  his  great 
vassals  was  wedded  to  a  heretic.  It  was  his  purpose, 
therefore,  to  leave  the  country  at  once,  and  retire  to 
Germany;  and  with  this  remark  he  abruptly  closed  the 
conference. 

The  secretary,  though  mortified  at  his  own  failure, 
besought  William  to  consent  to  an  interview,  before 
his  departure,  with  Count  Egmont,  who,  Berty  trusted, 
might  be  more  successful.  To  this  William  readily 
assented.  This  celebrated  meeting  took  place  at  Will- 
broek,  a  village  between  Antwerp  and  Brussels.  Be- 
sides the  two  lords  there  were  only  present  Count 
Mansfeldt  and  the  secretary. 

After  some  discussion,  in  which  each  of  the  friends 
endeavored  to  win  over  the  other  to  his  own  way  of 
thinking,  William  expressed  the  hope  that  Egmont 
would  save  himself  in  time  from  the  bloody  tempest 
that,  he  predicted,  was  soon  to  fall  on  the  heads  of  the 
Flemish  nobles.'     "I  trust  in  the  clemency  of  my  sov- 

*  Strarta,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  319. 

9  "  Orasse  ilium,  siibduceret  sese,  gravidamque  cruore  tempestatem 
ab  Hispania  impendentem  Belgarum  Proceruin  capitibus  ne  oppe- 
riretur."     Ibid.,  p.  321. 


OA  Til  REFUSED  B  Y  ORANGE.  1 1 1 

ercign,"  answered  the  count:  "he  cannot  deal  harshly 
with  men  who  have  restored  order  to  the  coimtry." 
"This  clemency  you  so  extol,"  replied  William,  "will 
be  your  ruin.  Much  I  fear  that  the  Spaniards  will 
make  use  of  you  as  a  bridge  to  effect  their  entrance 
into  the  country!"  '°  With  this  ominous  prediction  on 
his  lips,  he  tenderly  embraced  the  count,  with  tears  in 
his  eyes,  bidding  him  a  last  farewell.  And  thus  the 
two  friends  parted,  like  men  who  were  never  to  meet 
again. 

The  different  courses  pursued  by  the  two  nobles 
were  such  as  might  be  expected  from  the  difference  of 
both  their  characters  and  their  circumstances.  Eg- 
mont,  ardent,  hopeful,  and  confiding,  easily  surren- 
dered himself  to  the  illusions  of  his  own  fancy,  as  if 
events  were  to  shape  themselves  according  to  his  wishes. 
He  had  not  the  far-seeing  eye  of  William,  which 
seemed  to  penetrate  into  events  as  it  did  into  charac- 
ters. Nor  had  Egmont  learned,  like  William,  not  to 
put  his  trust  in  princes.  He  was,  doubtless,  as  sin- 
cerely attached  to  his  country  as  the  prince  of  Orange, 
and  abhorred,  like  him,  the  system  of  persecution 
avowed  by  the  government.  But  this  persecution  fell 
upon  a  party  with  whom  he  had  little  sympathy.  Wil- 
liam, on  the  other  hand,  was  a  member  of  that  party. 
A  blow  aimed  at  them  was  aimed  also  at  him.  It  is 
easy  to  see  how  different  were  the  stakes  of  the  two 
nobles  in  the  coming  contest,  both  in  respect  to  their 

10  "  Perdet  te,  inquit  Orangius,  hcec  quam  jactas  dementia  Regis, 
Egnionti;  ac  videor  mihi  providere  animo,  utinam  falso,  te  pontem 
scilicet  futurum,  quo  Hispani  calcato,  in  Belgium  transmittant." 
Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  tom.  i.  p.  321. 


112  TRANQUILLITY  RESTORED. 

sympathies  and  their  interests.  Egmont  was  by  birth 
a  Fleming.  His  estates  were  in  Flanders,  and  there, 
too,  were  his  hopes  of  worldly  fortune.  Exile  to  him 
would  have  been  beggary  and  ruin.  But  a  large,  if  not 
the  larger,  part  of  William's  property  lay  without  the 
confines  of  the  Netherlands.  In  withdrawing  to  Ger- 
many, he  went  to  his  native  land.  His  kindred  were 
still  there.  With  them  he  had  maintained  a  constant 
correspondence,  and  there  he  would  be  welcomed  by 
troops  of  friends.  It  was  a  home,  and  no  place  of 
exile,  that  William  was  to  find  in  Germany. 

Shortly  after  this  interview,  the  prince  went  to  his 
estates  at  Breda,  there  to  remain  a  few  days  before 
quitting  the  country."  From  Breda  he  wrote  to  Eg- 
mont, expressing  the  hope  that,  when  he  had  weighed 
them  in  his  mind,  he  would  be  contented  with  the 
reasons  assigned  for  his  departure.  The  rest  he  would 
leave  to  God,  who  would  order  all  for  his  own  glory. 
"Be  sure,"  he  added,  "you  have  no  friend  more 
warmly  devoted  to  you  than  myself;  for  the  love  of 
you  is  too  deeply  rooted  in  my  heart  to  be  weakened 
either  by  time  or  distance.""  It  is  pleasing  to  see 
that  party  spirit  had  not,  as  in  the  case  of  more  vulgar 

»»  The  secretary  Pratz,  in  a  letter  of  the  fourteenth  of  April,  thus 
kindly  notices  William's  departure:  "The  prince  has  gone,  taking 
along  with  him  half  a  dozen  heretical  doctors  and  a  good  number  of 
other  seditious  rogues."  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  1.  p. 
526. 

"  "Tibi  vero  hoc  persuade  amiciorem  me  te  habere  neminem  cui 
quidvis  libere  imperare  potes.  Amor  enim  tui  eas  egit  radices  in 
animo  nieo  ut  minui  nullo  temporis  aut  locorum  intervallo  possit." 
Arcliives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  tom.  iii.-p.  70. — It  is  not 
easy  to  understand  why  William  should  have  resorted  to  Latin  in  his 
correspondence  with  Egmont. 


WILLIAM  LEAVES    THE   NETHERLANDS. 


113 


souls,  the  power  to  rend  asunder  the  ties  which  had  so 
long  bound  these  great  men  to  each  other;  to  see  them 
still  turning  back,  with  looks  of  accustomed  kindness, 
when  they  were  entering  the  paths  that  were  to  lead  in 
such  opposite  directions. 

William  wrote  also  to  the  king,  acquainting  him  with 
what  he  had  done,  and  explaining  the  grounds  of  it;  at 
the  same  time  renewing  the  declaration  that,  wherever 
he  might  be,  he  trusted  never  to  be  found  wanting  to 
the  obligations  of  a  true  and  faithful  vassal.  Before 
leaving  Breda,  the  prince  received  a  letter  from  the 
politic  regent,  more  amiable  in  its  import  than  might 
have  been  expected.  Perhaps  it  was  not  wholly  policy 
that  made  her  unwilling  to  part  with  him  in  anger. 
She  expressed  her  readiness  to  do  him  any  favor  in  her 
power.  She  had  always  felt  for  him,  she  said,  the  same 
affection  as  for  her  own  son,  and  should  ever  continue 
to  do  so. '3 

On  the  last  of  April,  William  departed  for  Germany. 
He  took  with  him  all  his  household  except  his  eldest 
son,  the  count  of  Buren,  then  a  boy  thirteen  years 
old,  who  was  pursuing  his  studies  at  the  university  of 
Louvain.'*  Perhaps  William  trusted  to  the  immunities 
of  Brabant,  or  to  the  tender  age  of  the  youth,  for  his 

13  "  Ayant  tousjours  port^  eri  vostre  endroit  I'affection  que  je  pour- 
rois  faire  pour  ung  mien  fils,  ou  parent  bien  proche.  Et  vous  vous 
povez  de  ce  confier,  toutes  les  fois  que  les  occasions  se  presenteront, 
que  feray  le  mesme."  Correspondance  de  Guillaume  le  Taciturne, 
torn.  ii.  p.  371. 

M  William's  only  daughter  was  maid  of  honor  to  the  regent,  who 
made  no  objection  to  her  accompanying  her  father  saying  that  on  the 
young  lady's  return  she  would  find  no  diminution  !;f  the  love  that  had 
been  always  shown  to  her.     Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 
10* 


114  TRANQUILLITY  RESTORED. 

protection.  If  so,  he  grievously  miscalculated.  The 
boy  would  serve  as  too  important  a  hostage  for  his 
father,  and  Philip  caused  him  to  be  transferred  to 
Madrid,  where,  under  the  monarch's  eye,  he  was  edu- 
cated in  religious  as  well  as  in  political  sentiments 
very  little  in  harmony  with  those  of  the  prince  of 
Orange.  Fortunately,  the  younger  brother,  Maurice, 
who  inherited  the  genius  of  his  father,  and  was  to 
carry  down  his  great  name  to  another  generation, 
was  allowed  to  receive  his  training  under  the  paternal 
roof.'s 

Besides  his  family,  William  was  accompanied  by  a 
host  of  friends  and  followers,  some  of  them  persons 
of  high  consideration,  who  preferred  banishment  with 
him  to  encountering  the  troubles  that  awaited  them  at 
home.  Thus  attended,  he  fixed  his  residence  at  Dil- 
lemburg,  in  Nassau,  the  seat  of  his  ancestors,  and  the 
place  of  his  own  birth.  He  there  occupied  himself 
with  studying  the  Lutheran  doctrine  under  an  expe- 
rienced teacher  of  that  persuasion ;  '^  and,  while  he 
kept  a  Avatchful  eye  on  the  events  passing  in  his  un- 
happy country,  he  endeavored  to  make  himself  ac- 
quainted with  the  principles  of  that  glorious  Reforma- 
ts According  to  Strada,  some  thought  that  Wilham  knew  well  what 
he  was  about  when  he  left  his  son  behind  him  at  Louvain,  and  that 
he  would  have  had  no  objection  that  the  boy  should  be  removed  to 
Madrid, — considering  that,  if  things  went  badly  with  himself,  it  would 
be  well  for  the  heir  of  the  house  to  have  a  hold  on  the  monarch's 
favor.  This  is  rather  a  cool  way  of  proceeding  for  a  parent,  it  must 
be  admitted.  Yet  it  is  not  very  dissimilar  from  that  pursued  by  Wil- 
liam's own  father,  who,  a  stanch  Lutheran  himself,  allowed  his  son  to 
form  part  of  the  imperial  household  and  to  be  there  nurtured  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  failh.  See  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  373. 
'^  Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  tom.  iii.  p.  100. 


WILLIAM  LEAVES    THE  NETHERLANDS.      115 

tion,  of  which,  in  connection  with  political  freedom, 
he  was  one  day  to  become  the  champion. 

The  departure  of  the  prince  of  Orange  caused  gen- 
eral consternation  in  the  Netherlands.  All  who  were 
in  any  way  compromised  by  the  late  disturbances 
watched  more  anxiously  than  ever  the  signs  of  the 
coming  tempest,  as  they  felt  they  had  lost  the  pilot 
who  alone  could  enable  them  to  weather  it.  Thou- 
sands prepared  to  imitate  his  example  by  quitting  the 
country  before  it  was  too  late.  Among  those  who  fled 
were  the  Counts  Culemborg,  Berg,  Hoogstraten,  Louis 
of  Nassau,  and  others  of  inferior  note,  who  passed 
into  Germany,  where  they  gathered  into  a  little  circle 
round  the  prince,  waiting,  like  him,  for  happier  days. 

Some  of  the  great  lords,  who  had  held  out  against 
the  regent,  now  left  alone,  intimated  their  willingness 
to  comply  with  her  demands.  ''  Count  Hoorne,"  she 
writes  to  Philip,  "has  offered  his  services  to  me,  and 
declares  his  readiness  to  take  the  oath.  If  he  has 
spoken  too  freely,  he  says,  it  was  not  from  any  dis- 
affection to  the  government,  but  from  a  momentary 
feeling  of  pique  and  irritation.  I  would  not  drive  him 
to  desperation,  and  from  regard  to  his  kindred  I  have 
consented  that  he  should  take  his  seat  in  the  council 
again."  '^  The  haughty  tone  of  the  duchess  shows  that 
she  felt  herself  now  so  strongly  seated  as  to  be  nearly 
indifferent  whether  the  person  she  dealt  with  were 
friend  or  foe.'^ 

'7  "  Pour  ne  le  jecter  d'advantaige  en  desespoir  et  perdition,  aussy 
en  contemplation  de  ses  parens  et  alliez,  je  n'ai  peu  excuser  luy  dire 
qu'il  seroit  doncques  ainsy  qu'il  avait  faict,  et  qu'il  revinst  au  conseil." 
Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  238. 

'"  William  was  generous  enough  to  commend  Hoorne  for  this  step, 


Il6  TRANQUILLITY  RESTORED. 

Egmont,  at  this  time,  was  endeavoring  to  make 
amends  for  the  past  by  such  extraordinary  demonstra- 
tions of  loyalty  as  should  efface  all  remembrance  of  it. 
He  rode  through  the  land  at  the  head  of  his  troops, 
breaking  up  the  consistories,  arresting  the  rioters,  and 
everywhere  re-establishing  the  Catholic  worship.  He 
loudly  declared  that  those  who  would  remain  his 
friends  must  give  unequivocal  proofs  of  loyalty  to  the 
crown  and  the  Roman  Catholic  faith.  Some  of  those 
with  whom  he  had  been  most  intimate,  disgusted  with 
this  course,  and  distrusting,  perhaps,  such  a  deposit 
for  their  correspondence,  sent  back  the  letters  they 
had  received  from  him,  and  demanded  their  own  in 
return.'' 

At  Brussels  Egmont  entered  into  all  the  gayeties  of  the 
court,  displaying  his  usual  magnificence  in  costly  fetes 
and  banquets,  which  the  duchess  of  Parma  sometimes 
honored  with  her  presence.  The  count's  name  appears 
among  those  which  she  mentions  to  Philip  as  of  persons 
well  affected  to  the  government.  "It  is  impossible," 
she  says,  "not  to  be  satisfied  with  his  conduct."^ 
Thus  elated  by  the  favor  of  the  regent, — next  in  im- 
portance to  that  of  royalty  itself, — the  ill-fated  noble- 
man cherished  the  fond  hope  that  the  past  would  now 
be  completely  effaced  from  the  memory  of  his  master, 
— a  master  who  might  forget  a  benefit,  but  who  was 
"  never  known  to  forgive  an  injury. 

expressing  the  hope  that  it  might  induce  such  a  spirit  of  harmony  in 
the  royal  council  as  would  promote  the  interests  of  both  king  and 
country.  See  the  letter,  written  in  Latin,  dated  from  Breda,  April  14th, 
in  Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  tom.  iii.  p.  71. 

'9  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  tom.  i.  p.  322. 

»o  Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  235. 


SUBMISSION  OF  THE    COUNTRY.  117 

The  great  towns  throughout  the  land  had  now  gen- 
erally intimated  their  willingness  to  submit  to  the 
requisitions  of  Margaret,  and  many  of  them  had  ad- 
mitted garrisons  within  their  walls.  Antwerp  only,  of 
the  cities  of  Brabant,  remained  intractable.  At  length 
it  yielded  to  the  general  impulse,  and  a  deputation  was 
sent  to  the  regent  to  sue  for  her  forgiveness  and  to 
promise  that  the  leaders  in  the  late  disturbances  should 
be  banished  from  the  city.  This  was  a  real  triumph  to 
the  royal  party,  considering  the  motley  character  of  the 
population,  in  which  there  was  so  large  an  infusion  of 
Calvinism.  But  Margaret,  far  from  showing  her  satis- 
faction, coolly  answered  that  they  must  first  receive  a 
garrison ;  then  she  would  intercede  for  them  with  the 
king,  and  would  herself  consent  to  take  up  her  resi- 
dence in  the  city.  In  this  the  inhabitants,  now  well 
humbled,  affected  willingly  to  acquiesce;  and  soon  after 
Count  Mansfeldt,  at  the  head  of  sixteen  companies  of 
foot,  marched  into  Antwerp  in  battle-array,  and  there 
quartered  his  soldiers  as  in  a  conquered  capital. 

A  day  was  fixed  for  the  regent's  entry,  which  was 
to  be  made  with  all  becoming  pomp.  Detachments  of 
troops  were  stationed  in  the  principal  avenues,  and  on 
the  thirteenth  of  April  Margaret  rode  into  Antwerp, 
escorted  by  twelve  hundred  Walloons,  and  accompanied 
by  the  knights  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  the  great  lords, 
and  the  provincial  magistrates.  As  the  glittering  pro- 
cession passed  through  the  files  of  the  soldiery,  along 
the  principal  streets,  it  was  greeted  with  the  huzzas  of 
the  fickle  populace.  Thus  cheered  on  her  way,  the 
regent  proceeded  first  to  the  cathedral,  where  Te  Deum 
was  chanted,  and  on  her  knees  she  returned  thanks  to 


Il8  TRANQUILLITY  RESTORED. 

the  Almighty  that  this  great  city  had  been  restored 
without  battle  or  bloodshed  to  the  king  and  the  true 
faith."  As  her  eyes  wandered  over  the  desecrated  altars 
and  the  walls  despoiled  of  their  ornaments,  their  rich 
sculpture  and  paintings,  by  the  rude  hand  of  violence, 
Margaret  could  not  restrain  her  tears.  Her  first  care 
was  to  recover,  as  far  as  possible,  the  stolen  property, 
and  repair  the  injuries  to  the  building ;  the  next,  to 
punish  the  authors  of  these  atrocities ;  and  the  execu- 
tion in  the  market-place  of  four  of  the  ringleaders 
proclaimed  to  the  people  of  Antwerp  that  the  reign  of 
anarchy  was  over. 

Margaret  next  caused  the  churches  of  the  reformed 
party  to  be  levelled  with  the  ground.  Those  of  the 
Romish  faith,  after  being  purified,  and  the  marks  of 
violence,  as  far  as  practicable,  effaced,  were  restored  to 
their  ancient  occupants.  The  Protestant  schools  were 
everywhere  closed.  The  children  who  had  been  bap- 
tized with  Protestant  rites  were  now  rebaptized  after 
the  Catholic.''''  In  fine,  the  reformed  worship  was 
interdicted  throughout  the  city,  and  that  of  the  Romish 
Church,  with  its  splendid  ritual,  was  established  in  its 
place. 

On  occupying  Antwerp,  Margaret  had  allowed '  all 
who  were  not  implicated  in  the  late  riots  to  leave  the 
city  with  their  effects.  Great  numbers  now  availed 
themselves  of  this  permission,  and  the  streets  presented 
the  melancholy  spectacle  of  husbands  parting  from  their 

"  "  Egit  ipsa  privatim  magnne  Virgini  grates,  qudd  ejus  ope  tantam 
urbem  sine  proelio  ac  sanguine,  Religioni  Regique  recldidisset." 
Strada,  De  Rello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  328. 

""  Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  torn.  i.  p.  254. 


A^EW  EDICT. 


119 


wives,  parents  from  their  children,  or,  it  might  be, 
taking  their  families  along  with  them  to  some  kinder 
land,  where  they  would  be  allowed  to  worship  God 
according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own  consciences. 

But  even  this  glimmering  of  a  tolerant  spirit, — if  so 
it  can  be  called, — which  Margaret  exhibited  at  the 
outset,  soon  faded  away  before  the  dark  spirit  of  the 
Inquisition.  On  the  twenty-fourth  of  May,  she  pub- 
lished an  edict  written  in  the  characters  of  blood  which 
distinguished  the  worst  times  of  Charles  and  Philip. 
By  this  edict,  all  who  had  publicly  preached,  or  Avho 
had  performed  the  religious  exercises  after  the  Prot- 
estant manner,  all  who  had  furnished  the  places  of 
meeting,  or  had  harbored  or  aided  the  preachers,  all 
printers  of  heretical  tracts,  or  artists  who  with  their 
pencil  had  brought  ridicule  on  the  Church  of  Rome, — 
all,  in  short,  who  were  guilty  of  these  or  similar  iniqui- 
ties, were  to  be  punished  with  death  and  confiscation 
of  property.  Lighter  offences  were  to  be  dealt  with 
according  to  the  measure  of  their  guilt.  The  edict 
containing  these  humane  provisions  is  of  considerable 
length,  and  goes  into  a  large  specification  of  offences, 
from  which  few,  if  any,  of  the  reformed  could  have  been 
entirely  exempt.  ^3  When  this  ordinance  of  the  regent  was 
known  at  Madrid,  it  caused  great  dissatisfaction.  The 
king  pronounced  it  "indecorous,  illegal,  and  altogether 
repugnant  to  the  true  spirit  of  Christianity;"^''  and  he 

"3  Gachard  has  transferred  to  his  notes  the  whole  of  this  sanguinary 
document.     See  Correspondance  de  Philippe  11.,  torn.  i.  pp.  550,  551. 

*4  "  La  peine  et  le  mecontentement  qu'il  a  eprouves,  de  ce  que  Ton 
a  fait  une  chose  si  illicite,  si  indecente,  et  si  contraire  h.  la  religion 
chr6tienne."     Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


I20  TRANQUILLITY  RESTORED. 

ordered  Margaret  forthwith  to  revoke  the  edict.  It  was 
accordingly  repealed  on  the  twenty-third  of  July  follow- 
ing. The  reader  who  may  be  disposed  to  join  heartily 
in  the  malediction  may  not  be  prepared  to  learn  that 
the  cause  of  the  royal  indignation  was  not  that  the 
edict  was  too  severe,  but  that  it  was  too  lenient !  It 
nowhere  denounced  the  right  of  private  worship.  A 
man  might  still  be  a  heretic  at  heart  and  at  his  own 
fireside,  so  long  as  he  did  not  obtrude  it  on  the  public. 
This  did  not  suit  the  Inquisition,  whose  jealous  eye 
penetrated  into  the  houses  and  the  hearts  of  men, 
dragging  forth  their  secret  thoughts  into  open  day  and 
punishing  these  like  overt  acts.  Margaret  had  some- 
thing yet  to  learn  in  the  school  of  persecution. ^s 

While  at  Antwerp,  the  regent  received  an  embassy 
from  the  elector  of  Saxony,  the  landgrave  of  Hesse, 
and  other  Protestant  princes  of  Germany,  interceding 
for  the  oppressed  Lutherans  and  praying  that  she  would 
not  consent  to  their  being  so  grievously  vexed  by  the 
Catholic  government.  Margaret,  who  was  as  little 
pleased  at  the  plain  terms  in  which  this  remonstrance 
was  conveyed  as  with  the  object  of  it,  coldly  replied 

=s  Viglius  was  not  too  enlightened  to  enter  his  protest  against  the 
right  to  freedom  of  conscience,  which,  in  a  letter  to  his  friend  Hop- 
per, he  says  may  lead  every  one  to  set  up  his  own  gods — "  lares  aut 
lemures" — according  to  his  fancy.  Yet  the  president  was  wise  enough 
to  see  that  sufficient  had  been  done  at  present  in  breaking  up  the 
preachings.  "Time  and  Philip's  presence  must  do  the  rest."  (Epis 
tolse  ad  Hopperum,  p.  433.)  "Those,"  he  says  in  another  letter, 
"who  have  set  the  king  against  the  edict  have  greatly  deceived  him. 
They  are  having  their  ovation  before  they  have  gained  the  victory. 
They  think  they  can  dispose  of  Flemish  affairs  as  they  like  at  Toledo, 
when  hardly  a  Spaniard  dares  to  show  his  head  in  Brussels."  Ibid., 
p.  428. 


CRUEL   REPRISALS.  121 

that  the  late  conduct  of  the  Flemish  Protestants  doubt- 
less entitled  them  to  all  this  sympathy  from  the  German 
princes,  but  she  advised  the  latter  to  busy  themselves 
with  their  own  affairs,  and  leave  the  king  of  Spain  to 
manage  his  as  he  thought  best.^ 

Of  all  the  provinces,  Holland  was  the  only  one 
which  still  made  resistance  to  the  will  of  the  regent. 
And  here,  as  we  have  already  seen,  was  gathered  a 
military  array  of  some  strength.  The  head-quarters 
were  at  Brederode's  town  of  Viana.  But  that  chief 
had  left  his  followers  for  the  present,  and  had  been 
secretly  introduced  into  Amsterdam,  where,  as  before 
noticed,  he  was  busy  in  rousing  a  spirit  of  resistance 
in  the  citizens,  already  well  prepared  for  it  by  their 
Protestant  preachers.  The  magistrates,  sorely  annoyed, 
would  gladly  have  rid  themselves  of  Brederode's  pres- 
ence, but  he  had  too  strong  a  hold  on  the  people.  Yet, 
as  hour  after  hour  brought  fresh  tidings  of  the  disasters 
of  his  party,  the  chief  himself  became  aware  that  all 
hopes  of  successful  resistance  must  be  deferred  to  an- 
other day.  Quitting  the  city  by  night,  he  contrived, 
with  the  aid  of  his .  friends,  to  make  his  escape  into 
Germany.  Some  months  he  passed  in  Westphalia, 
occupied  with  raising  forces  for  a  meditated  invasion 
of  the  Netherlands,  when,  in  the  summer  of  1568,  he 
was  carried  off  by  a  fever,  brought  on,  it  is  said,  by 
his  careless,  intemperate  way  of  life.^ 

Brederode  was  a  person  of  a  free  and  fearless  temper, 
— with  the  defects,  and  the  merits  too,  that  attach  to 

^  Archives  de  la  Maison  d' Orange-Nassau,  torn.  iii.  pp.  80-93.^ 
Strada,  De  Bdlo  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  329. 
»7  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  332. 
Philip.— Vol.  II.— F  II 


122  TRANQUILLITY  RESTORED. 

that  sort  of  character.  The  friendship  with  which  he 
seems  to  have  been  regarded  by  some  of  the  most 
estimable  persons  of  his  party — Louis  of  Nassau, 
especially — speaks  well  for  his  heart.  The  reckless 
audacity  of  the  man  is  shown  in  his  correspondence ; 
and  the  free  manner  in  which  he  deals  with  persons 
and  events  makes  his  letters  no  less  interesting  than 
important  for  the  light  they  throw  on  these  troubled 
times.  Yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that,  after  all,  Brede- 
rode  is  indebted  much  more  to  the  circumstances  of  his 
situation  than  to  his  own  character  for  the  space  he 
occupies  in  the  pages  of  history.^ 

Thus  left  without  a  leader,  the  little  army  which 
Brederode  had  gathered  under  his  banner  soon  fell  to 
pieces.  Detachments,  scattering  over  the  country,  com- 
mitted various  depredations,  plundering  the  religious 
houses,  and  engaging  in  encounters  with  the  royal 
troops  under  Megen  and  Aremberg,  in  which  the 
insurgents  fared  the  worst.  Thus  broken  on  all  sides, 
those  who  did  not  fall  into  the  enemy's  hands,  or  on 
the  field,  were  too  glad  to  make  their  escape  into 
Germany.  One  vessel,  containing  a  great  number  of 
fugitives,  was  wrecked,  and  all  on  board  were  made 
prisoners.  Among  them  were  two  brothers  of  the 
name  of  Battenberg;  they  were  of  a  noble  family, 
and   prominent  members  of  the  league.     They  were 

^  Groen's  inestimable  collection  contains  several  of  Brederode's 
letters,  which  may  remind  one  in  their  tone  of  the  dashing  cavalier  of 
the  time  of  Charles  the  First.  They  come  from  the  heart,  mingling 
the  spirit  of  daring  enterprise  with  the  careless  gayety  of  the  bon 
vivant,  and  throw  far  more  light  than  the  stiff,  statesmanlike  corre- 
spondence of  the  period  on  the  character,  not  merely  of  the  writer, 
but  of  the  disjointed  times  in  which  he  lived. 


CRUEL   REPRISALS. 


123 


at  once,  with  their  principal  followers,  thrown  into 
prison,  to  await  their  doom  from  the  bloody  tribunal 
of  Alva. 

Deprived  of  all  support  from  without,  the  city  of 
Amsterdam  offered  no  further  resistance,  but  threw 
open  its  gates  to  the  regent  and  consented  to  accept 
her  terms.  These  were  the  same  that  had  been  im- 
posed on  all  the  other  refractory  towns.  The  immu- 
nities of  the  city  were  declared  to  be  forfeited,  a  garri- 
son was  marched  into  the  place,  and  preparations  were 
made  for  building  a  fortress,  to  guard  against  future 
commotions.  Those  who  chose — with  the  customary 
exceptions — were  allowed  to  leave  the  city.  Great 
numbers  availed  themselves  of  the  permission.  The 
neighboring  dikes  were  crowded  with  fugitives  from 
the  territory  round,  as  well  as  from  the  city,  anxiously 
waiting  for  vessels  to  transport  them  to  Embden,  the 
chief  asylum  of  the  exiles.  There  they  stood,  men, 
women,  and  children,  a  melancholy  throng,  without 
food,  almost  without  raiment  or  any  of  the  common 
necessaries  of  life,  exciting  the  commiseration  of  even 
their  Catholic  adversaries."^ 

The  example  of  Amsterdam  was  speedily  followed  by 
Delft,  Haarlem,  Rotterdam,  Leyden,  and  the  remaining 
towns  of  Holland,  which  now  seemed  to  vie  with  one 
another  in  demonstrations  of  loyalty  to  the  govern- 
ment. The  triumph  of  the  regent  was  complete.  Her 
arms  had  been  every^vhere  successful,  and  her  authority 
was  fully  recognized  throughout  the  whole  extent  of 

^  Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  vol.  i.  p.  255. — Me- 
teren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  50. — Vander  Haer,  De  Initiis  Tumul- 
tuum,  p.  327. — Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  533. 


124  TRANQUILLITY  RESTORED. 

the  Netherlands.  Doubtful  friends  and  open  foes, 
Catholics  and  Reformers,  were  alike  prostrate  at  her 
feet. 3°  With  the  hour  of  triumph  came  also  the  hour 
of  vengeance.  And  we  can  hardly  doubt  that  the  re- 
membrance of  past  humiliation  gave  a  sharper  edge  to 
the  sword  of  justice.  Fortresses,  to  overawe  the  in- 
habitants, were  raised  in  the  principal  towns  ;3»  and  the 
expense  of  their  construction,  as  well  as  of  maintaining 
their  garrisons,  was  defrayed  by  fines  laid  on  the  re- 
fractory cities.3''  The  regent's  troops  rode  over  the 
country,  and  wherever  the  reformed  were  gathered  to 
hear  the  word  they  were  charged  by  the  troopers,  who 
trampled  them  under  their  horses'  hoofs,  shooting  them 
down  without  mercy,  or  dragging  them  off  by  scores  to 
execution.  No  town  was  so  small  that  fifty  at  least  did 
not  perish  in  this  way,  while  the  number  of  the  victims 
sometimes  rose  to  two  or  even  three  hundred. ^^    Every- 

3°  Margaret's  success  draws  forth  an  animated  tribute  from  the 
president  of  Mechlin  :  "  De  manera  que  los  negocios  de  los  payses 
bajos  por  la  gracia  de  Dios  y  la  prudencia  de  esta  virtuosa  Dama  y 
Princesa  con  la  asistencia  de  los  buenos  consejeros  y  servidores  del 
Rey  en  buenos  terminos  y  en  efecto  remediados,  las  villas  reveldes  y 
alteradas  amazadas,  los  gueuses  reducidos  6  huidos ;  los  ministros  y 
predicantes  echados  fuera  6  presos ;  y  la  autoridad  de  su  Magestad 
establecida  otra  vez."  Renom  de  Francia,  Alborotos  de  Flandes, 
MS. 

3«  This  was  fulfilling  the  prophecy  of  the  prince  of  Orange,  who  in 
his  letter  to  Hoorne  tells  him,  "  In  a  short  time  we  shall  refuse 
neither  bridle  nor  saddle.  For  myself,"  he  adds,  "  I  have  not  the 
strength  to  endure  either."  Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau, 
torn.  iii.  p.  72. 

3»  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  tom.  i.  p.  333. 

33  See  Meteren  (Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  49),  who  must  have  drawn 
somewhat  on  his  fancy  for  these  wholesale  executions,  which,  if  taken 
liter.ally,  would  have  gone  nigh  to  depopulate  the  Netherlands. 


CRUEL   REPRISALS. 


125 


where  along  the  road-side  the  traveller  beheld  the 
ghastly  spectacle  of  bodies  swinging  from  gibbets,  or 
met  with  troops  of  miserable  exiles  flying  irom  their 
native  land.^*  Confiscation  followed,  as  usual,  in  the 
train  of  persecution.  At  Tournay,  the  property  of  a 
hundred  of  the  richest  merchants  was  seized  and  ap- 
propriated by  the  government.  Even  the  populace, 
like  those  animals  who  fall  upon  and  devour  one  of 
their  own  number  when  wounded,  now  joined  in  the 
cry  against  the  Reformers.  They  worked  with  the 
same  alacrity  as  the  soldiers  in  pulling  down  the  Prot- 
estant churches,  and  from  the  beams,  in  some  instances, 
formed  the  very  gallows  from  which  their  unhappy  vic- 
tims were  suspended.^  Such  is  the  picture,  well  charged 
with  horrors,  left  to  us  by  Protestant  writers.  We  may 
be  quite  sure  that  it  lost  nothing  of  its  darker  coloring 
under  their  hands. 

So  strong  was  now  the  tide  of  emigration  that  it 
threatened  to  depopulate  some  of  the  fairest  provinces 
of  the  country.  The  regent,  who  at  first  rejoiced  in 
this  as  the  best  means  of  ridding  the  land  of  its  ene- 
mies, became  alarmed,  as  she  saw  it  was  drawing  off  so 
large  a  portion  of  the  industrious  population.  They 
fled  to  France,  to  Germany,  and  very  many  to  Eng- 
land, where  the  wise  Elizabeth  provided  them  with 
homes,  knowing  well  that,  though  poor,  they  brought 
with  them  a  skill  in  the  mechanic  arts  which  would  do 

34  "Thus  the  gallowses  were  filled  with  carcasses,  and  Germany 
with  exiles."  Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  torn.  i.  p. 
257- 

35  "  Ex  trabibus  decidentium  templorum,  infelicia  conformarent 
patibula,  ex  quibus  ipsi  templorum  fabri  cultoresque  penderent." 
Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  333. 


126  TRANQUILLITY  RESTORED. 

more  than  gold  and  silver  for  the  prosperity  of 'her 
kingdom. 

Margaret  would  have  stayed  this  tide  of  emigration 
by  promises  of  grace,  if  not  by  a  general  amnesty  for 
,  the  past.  But,  though  she  had  power  to  punish, 
Philip  had  not  given  her  the  power  to  pardon.  And 
indeed  promises  of  grace  would  have  availed  little  with 
men  flying  from  the  dread  presence  of  Alva.^  It  was 
the  fear  of  him  which  gave  wings  to  their  flight,  as 
Margaret  herself  plainly  intimated  in  a  letter  to  the 
duke,  in  which  she  deprecated  his  coming  with  an 
army,  when  nothing  more  was  needed  than  a  vigilant 
police.  3^ 

In  truth,  Margaret  was  greatly  disgusted  by  the  in- 
tended mission  of  the  duke  of  Alva,  of  which  she  had 
been  advised  by  the  king  some  months  before.  She 
knew  well  the  imperious  temper  of  the  man,  and  that, 
however  high-sounding  might  be  her  own  titles,  the 
power  would  be  lodged  in  his  hands.  She  felt  this  to 
be  a  poor  requital  for  her  past  services, — a  personal  in- 
dignity, no  less  than  an  injury  to  the  state.  She  gave 
free  vent  to  her  feelings  on  the  subject  in  more  than 
one  letter  to  her  brother. 

In  a  letter  of  the  fifth  of  April  she  says,  "You  have 
shown  no  regard  for  my  wishes  or  my  reputation.  By 
your  extraordinary  restrictions  on  my  authority,  you 
have  prevented  my  settling  the  affairs  of  the  country 
entirely  to  my  mind.     Yet,  seeing  things  in  so  good  a 

36  "  Le  bruit  de  raniv^e  prochaine  du  due,  k  la  tete  d'une  arm6e, 
fait  fuir  de  toutes  parts  des  gens,  qui  se  retirent  en  France,  en  Angle- 
terre,  au  pays  de  Cloves,  en  Allemagne  et  ailleurs."  Correspondance 
de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  546. 

37  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


TRANQUILLITY  RESTORED.  127 

state,  you  are  willing  to  give  all  the  credit  to  another, 
and  leave  me  only  the  fatigue  and  danger. ^^  But  I  am 
resolved,  instead  of  wasting  the  remainder  of  my  days, 
as  I  have  already  done  my  health,  in  this  way,  to  retire 
and  dedicate  myself  to  a  tranquil  life  in  the  service  of 
God."  In  another  letter,  dated  four  weeks  later,  on 
the  third  of  May,  after  complaining  that  the  king  with- 
draws his  confidence  more  and  more  from  her,  she  asks 
leave  to  withdraw,  as  the  country  is  restored  to  order, 
and  the  royal  authority  more  assured  than  in  the  time 
of  Charles  the  Fifth.39 

In  this  assurance  respecting  the  public  tranquillity, 
Margaret  was  no  doubt  sincere ;  as  are  also  the  histo- 
rians who  have  continued  to  take  the  same  view  of  the 
matter,  down  to  the  present  time,  and  who  consider 
the  troubles  of  the  country  to  have  been  so  far  com- 
posed by  the  regent  that  but  for  the  coming  of  Alva 
there  would  have  been  no  revolution  in  the  Nether- 
lands. Indeed,  there  might  have  seemed  to  be  good 
ground  for  such  a  conclusion.  The  revolt  had  been 
crushed.  Resistance  had  everywhere  ceased.  The  au- 
thority of  the  regent  was  recognized  throughout  the 
land.  The  league,  which  had  raised  so  bold  a  front 
against  the  government,  had  crumbled  away.  Its  mem- 
bers had  fallen  in  battle,  or  lay  waiting  their  sentence 

38  "  Par  les  restrictions  extraordinaires  que  V.  M.  a  mises  h.  mon 
autorite,  elle  m'a  enleve  tout  pouvoir,  et  m'a  prive  des  moyens  d'ache- 
ver  rentier  retablissement  des  affaires  de  ce  pays :  k  present  qu'elle 
voit  ces  affaires  en  un  bon  etat,  elle  en  veut  donner  I'honnear  &  d'au- 
tres,  tandis  que,  moi  seule,  j'ai  eu  les  fatigues  et  les  dangers."  Cor- 
respondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  523. 

39  "  Ou  rautorite  du  Roi  est  plus  assuree  qu'elle  ne  I'etait  au  temps 
de  I'Empereur."     Ibid.,  p.  532. 


128  TRANQUILLITY  RESTORED. 

in  dungeons,  or  were  wandering  as  miserable  exiles  in 
distant  lands.  The  name  of  Gueux,  and  the  insignia 
of  the  bowl  and  the  beggar's  scrip,  which  they  had 
assumed  in  derision,  were  now  theirs  by  right.  It  Avas 
too  true  for  a  jest. 

The  party  of  reform  had  disappeared,  as  if  by  magic. 
Its  worship  was  everywhere  proscribed.  On  its  ruins 
the  Catholic  religion  had  risen  in  greater  splendor  than 
ever.  Its  temples  were  restored,  its  services  celebrated 
with  more  than  customary  pomp.  The  more  austere 
and  uncompromising  of  the  Reformers  had  fled  the 
country.  Those  who  remained  purchased  impunity  by 
a  compulsory  attendance  on  mass ;  or  the  wealthier 
sort,  by  the  aid  of  good  cheer  or  more  substantial  lar- 
gesses, bribed  the  priest  to  silence. ■♦°  At  no  time  since 
the  beginning  of  the  Reformation  had  the  clergy  been 
treated  with  greater  deference,  or  enjoyed  a  greater 
share  of  authority  in  the  land.  The  dark  hour  of  revo- 
lution seemed,  indeed,  to  have  passed  away. 

Yet  a  Fleming  of  that  day  might  well  doubt  whether 
the  prince  of  Orange  were  a  man  likely  to  resign  his 
fair  heritage  and  the  land  so  dear  to  his  heart  without 
striking  one  blow  in  their  defence.  One  who  knew  the 
wide  spread  of  the  principles  of  reform,  and  the  sturdy 
character  of  the  reformer,  might  distrust  the  perma- 
nence of  a  quiet  which  had  been  brought  about  by  so 
much  violence.  He  might  rather  think  that,  beneath 
the  soil  he  was  treading,  the  elements  were  still  at  work 
which,  at  no  distant  time  perhaps,  would  burst  forth 
with  redoubled  violence  and  spread  ruin  over  the  land- 

4°  Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  torn.  i.  p.  258. 


BOOK  III. 

CHAPTER    I. 

ALVA   SENT   TO   THE   NETHERLANDS. 

Alva's  Appointment. — His  remarkable  March. — He  arrives  at  Brus- 
sels.— Margaret  disgusted. — Policy  of  the  Duke. — Arrest  of  Egmont 
and  Hoorne. 

1567- 

While  Margaret  was  thus  successful  in  bringing  the 
country  to  a  state  of  at  least  temporary  tranquillity, 
measures  were  taken  at  the  court  of  Madrid  for  shifting 
the  government  of  the  Netherlands  into  other  hands, 
and  for  materially  changing  its  policy. 

We  have  seen  how  actively  the  rumors  had  been  cir- 
culated, throughout  the  last  year,  of  Philip's  intended 
visit  to  the  country.  These  rumors  had  received  abun- 
dant warrant  from  his  own  letters,  addressed  to  the 
regent  a!nd  to  his  ministers  at  the  different  European 
courts.  Nor  did  the  king  confine  himself  to  professions. 
He  applied  to  the  French  government  to  allow  a  free 
passage  for  his  army  through  its  territories.  He  caused 
a  survey  to  be  made  of  that  part  of  Savoy  through 
which  his  troops  would  probably  march,  and  a  map  of 
the  proposed  route  to  be  prepared.  He  ordered  fresh 
levies  from  Germany  to  meet  him  on  the  Flemish  fron- 
F*  (  129 ) 


130      ALVA    SENT  TO   THE   NETHERLANDS. 

tier.  And,  finally,  he  talked  of  calling  the  cortes 
together,  to  provide  for  the  regency  during  his  absence. 

Yet,  whoever  else  might  be  imposed  on,  there  was 
one  potentate  in  Europe  whose  clear  vision  was  not  to 
be  blinded  by  the  professions  of  Philip,  nor  by  all  this 
bustle  of  preparation.  This  was  the  old  pontiff,  Pius 
the  Fifth,  who  had  always  distrusted  the  king's  sincerity. 
Pius  had  beheld  with  keen  anguish  the  spread  of  heresy 
in  the  Low  Countries.  Like  a  true  son  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion as  he  was,  he  would  gladly  have  seen  its  fires  kin- 
dled in  every  city  of  this  apostate  land.  He  had 
observed  with  vexation  the  apathy  manifested  by  Philip. 
And  he  at  length  resolved  to  despatch  a  special  embassy 
to  Spain,  to  stimulate  the  monarch,  if  possible,  to  more 
decided  action. 

The  person  employed  was  the  bishop  of  Ascoli,  and 
the  good  father  delivered  his  rebuke  in  such  blunt  terms 
as  caused  a  sensation  at  the  court  of  Madrid.  In  a 
letter  to  his  ambassador  at  Rome,  Philip  complained 
that  the  pope  should  have  thus  held  him  up  to  Christen- 
dom as  one  slack  in  the  performance  of  his  duty.  The 
envoy  had  delivered  himself  in  so  strange  a  manner, 
Philip  added,  that,  but  for  the  respect  and  love  he  bore 
his  holiness,  he  might  have  been  led  to  take  precisely 
the  opposite  course  to  the  one  he  intended.' 

'  "  Ledit  eveque,  dans  la  premiere  audience  qu'il  lui  a  donnee,  a 
use  d'ailleures  de  termes  si  ^tranges,  qu'il  I'a  mis  en  colore,  et  que, 
s'il  cut  eu  moins  d'amour  et  de  respect  pour  S.  S.,  cela  eut  pu  le  faire 
revenir  sur  les  resolutions  qu'il  a  prises."  Correspondance  de  Philippe 
II.,  torn.  i.  p.  488. — The  tart  remonstrance  of  Philip  had  its  effect. 
Granvclle  soon  after  wrote  to  the  king  that  his  hohness  was  greatly 
disturbed  by  the  manner  in  which  his  majesty  had  taken  his  rebuke. 
The  pope,  Granvclle  added,  was  a  person  of  the  best  intentions,  but 


HIS  APPOINTMENT. 


131 


Yet,  notwithstanding  this  show  of  indignation,  had 
it  not  been  for  the  outbreak  of  the  iconoclasts,  it  is  not 
improbable  that  the  king  might  still  have  continued  to 
procrastinate,  relying  on  his  favorite  maxim,  that  "Time 
and  himself  were  a  match  for  any  other  two."*  But 
the  event  which  caused  such  a  sensation  throughout 
Christendom  roused  every  feeling  of  indignation  in  the 
royal  bosom, — and  this  from  the  insult  offered  to  the 
crown  as  well  as  to  the  Church.  Contrary  to  his  wont, 
the  king  expressed  himself  with  so  much  warmth  on  the 
subject,  and  so  openly,  that  the  most  skejJtical  began  at 
last  to  believe  that  the  long-talked -of  visit  was  at  hand. 
The  only  doubt  was  as  to  the  manner  in  which  it  should 
be  made, — whether  the  king  should  march  at  the  head 
of  an  army,  or  attended  only  by  so  much  of  a  retinue 
as  was  demanded  by  his  royal  state. 

The  question  was  warmly  discussed  in  the  council. 

with  very  little  knowledge  of  the  world,  and  easily  kept  in  check  by 
tl|pse  who  show  their  teeth  to  him :  "  reprimise  quando  se  le  muestran 
los  dientes."     Ibid.,  torn.  ii.  p.  Iviii. 

""Que  lui  et  le  temps  en  valaient  deux  autres."  Vandervynckt, 
Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  p.  199. — The  hesitation  of  the  king 
drew  on  him  a  sharp  rebuke  from  the  audacious  Fray  Lorenzo  Villa- 
vicencio,  who  showed  as  little  ceremony  in  dealing  with  Philip  as 
with  his  ministers.  "  If  your  majesty,"  he  says,  "  consulting  only 
your  own  ease,  refuses  to  make  this  visit  to  Flanders,  which  so 
nearly  concerns  the  honor  of  God,  his  blessed  Mother,  and  all  the 
saints,  as  well  as  the  weal  of  Christendom,  what  is  it  but  to  declare 
that  you  are  ready  to  accept  the  regal  dignity  which  God  has  given 
you,  and  yet  leave  to  him  all  the  care  and  trouble  that  belong  to  that 
dignity?  God  would  take  this  as  ill  of  your  majesty,  as  you  would 
take  it  of  those  of  your  vassals  whom  you  had  raised  to  offices  of 
trust  and  honor,  and  who  took  the  offices,  but  left  you  to  do  the  work 
for  them  !  To  offend  God  is  a  rash  act,  that  must  destroy  both  soul 
and  body."  Gachard,  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  tom.  ii., 
Rapport,  p.  xlviii. 


132 


ALVA   SENT  TO    THE  NETHERLANDS. 


Ruy  Gomez,  the  courtly  favorite  of  Philip,  was  for  the 
latter  alternative.  A  civil  war  he  deprecated,  as  bringing 
ruin  even  to  the  victor. ^  Clemency  was  the  best  attribute 
of  a  sovereign,  and  the  people  of  Flanders  were  a  gen- 
erous race,  more  likely  to  be  overcome  by  kindness 
than  by  arms."*  In  these  liberal  and  humane  views  the 
prince  of  Eboli  was  supported  by  the  politic  secretary, 
Antonio  Perez,  and  by  the  duke  of  Feria,  formerly 
ambassador  to  London,  a  man  who  to  polished  manners 
united  a  most  insinuating  eloquence. 

But  very  different  opinions,  as  might  be  expected, 
were  advanced  by  the  duke  of  Alva.  The  system  of 
indulgence,  he  said,  had  been  that  followed  by  the  re- 
gent, and  its  fruits  were  visible.  The  weeds  of  heresy 
were  not  to  be  extirpated  by  a  gentle  hand ;  and  his 
majesty  should  deal  with  his  rebellious  vassals  as  Charles 
the  Fifth  had  dealt  with  their  rebel  fathers  at  Ghent. ^ 
These  stern  views  received  support  from  the  Cardinal 
Espinosa,  who  held  the  office  of  president  of  the  coi»n- 
cil  as  well  as  of  grand  inquisitor,  and  who  doubtless 
thought  the  insult  offered  to  the  Inquisition  not  the 
least  of  the  offences  to  be  charged  on  the  Reformers. 

Each  of  the  great  leaders  recommended  the  measures 
most  congenial  with  his  own  character,  and  which  had 
they  been  adopted  would  probably  have  required  his 
own  services  to  carry  them  into  execution.  Had  the 
pacific  course  been  taken,  Feria,  or  more  probably  Kuy 

3  "  Ne  extingui  quidem  posse  sine  ruina  victoris."  Strada,  De 
Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  338. — Better  expressed  by  the  old  Castilian 
proverb,  "  El  vencido  vencido,  y  el  vencidor  perdido." 

4  "At  illos  non  armis  sed  beneficiis  expugnari."  Strada,  De  Bello 
Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  339. 

5  Ibid.,  p.  340. 


HIS  APPOINTMENT. 


^IZ 


Gomez,  would  have  been  intrusted  with  the  direction 
of  affairs.  Indeed,  Montigny  and  Bergen,  still  detained 
in  reluctant  captivity  at  Madrid,  strongly  urged  the 
king  to  send  the  prince  of  Eboli,  as  a  man  who,  by  his 
popular  manners  and  known  discretion,  would  be  most 
likely  to  reconcile  opposite  factions.*^  Were  violent 
measures,  on  the  other  hand,  to  be  adopted,  to  whom 
could  they  be  so  well  intrusted  as  to  the  duke  himself, 
the  most  experienced  captain  of  his  time  ? 

The  king,  it  is  said,  contrary  to  his  custom,  was 
present  at  the  meeting  of  the  council  and  listened  to 
the  debate.  He  did  not  intimate  his  opinion.  But  it 
might  be  conjectured  to  which  side  he  was  most  likely 
to  lean,  from  his  habitual  preference  for  coercive 
measures.^ 

Philip  came  to  a  decision  sooner  than  usual.  In  a 
few  days  he  summoned  the  duke,  and  told  him  that  he 
had  resolved  to  send  him  forthwith,  at  the  head  of  an 
army,  to  the  Netherlands.  It  was  only,  however,  to 
prepare  the  way  for  his  own  coming,  wliich  would  take 
place  as  soon  as  the  country  was  in  a  state  sufficiently 
settled  to  receive  him. 

6  "  Ouy,  et  que  plus  est,  oserions  presques  asseurer  Vostre  Majeste 
plusieurs  des  mauvais  et  des  principaulx,  voiant  ledit  prince  de  He- 
boli,  se  viendront  reconcilier  k  luy,  et  le  supplier  avoir,  par  son  moien, 
faveur  vers  Vostre  Majeste."  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn, 
i.  p.  519. 

7  The  debate  is  reported  with  sufficient  minuteness  both  by  Cabrera 
(Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  vii.  cap.  vii.)  and  Strada  (De  Bello  Belgico,  torn. 
i.  p.  338).  They  agree,  however,  neither  in  the  names  of  the  parties 
present,  nor  in  the  speeches  they  made.  Yet  their  disagreement  in 
these  particulars  is  by  no  means  so  surprising  as  their  agreement  in 
the  most  improbable  part  of  their  account, — Philip's  presence  at  the 
debate. 

Philip.— Vol.  II.  12 


134 


ALVA    SENT  TO    THE  NETHERLAxYDS. 


All  was  now  alive  with  the  business  of  preparation  in 
Castile.  Levies  were  raised  throughout  the  country. 
Such  was  the  zeal  displayed  that  even  the  Inquisition 
and  the  clergy  advanced  a  considerable  sum  towards 
defraying  the  expenses  of  an  expedition  which  they 
seemed  to  regard  in  the  light  of  a  crusade.^  Magazines 
of  provisions  were  ordered  to  be  established  at  regular 
stations  on  the  proposed  line  of  march.  Orders  were 
sent  that  the  old  Spanish  garrisons  in  Lombardy,  Na- 
ples, Sicily,  and  Sardinia  should  be  transported  to  the 
place  of  rendezvous  in  Piedmont,  to  await  the  coming 
of  the  duke,  who  would  supply  their  places  with  the 
fresh  recruits  brought  with  him  from  Castile. 

Philip  meanwhile  constantly  proclaimed  that  Alva's 
departure  was  only  the  herald  of  his  own.  He  wrote 
this  to  Margaret,  assuring  her  of  his  purpose  to  go  by 
water,  and  directing  her  to  have  a  squadron  of  eight 
vessels  in  readiness  to  convoy  him  to  Zealand,  where 
he  proposed  to  land.  The  vessels  were  accordingly 
equipped.  Processions  were  made,  and  prayers  put  up 
in  all  the  churches,  for  the  prosperous  passage  of  the 
king.  Yet  there  were  some  in  the  Netherlands  who 
remarked  that  prayers  to  avert  the  dangers  of  the  sea 
were  hardly  needed  by  the  monarch  in  his  palace  at 
Madrid  ! '  Many  of  those  about  the  royal  person  soon 
indulged  in  the  same  skepticism  in  regard  to  the  king's 
sincerity,  as  week  after  week  passed  away  and  no  ar- 
rangements were  made  for  his  departure.  Among  the 
contradictory  rumors  at  court  in  respect  to  the  king's 

8  "  Comme  si  c'eust  este  uiie  saincte  guerre."     Meteren,  Hist,  des 
Pays-Bas,  fol.  52. 

9  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  350. 


HIS  APPOINTMENT. 


135 


intention,  the  pope's  nuncio  wrote,  it  was  impossible  to 
get  at  the  truth."  It  was  easy  to  comprehend  the  gen- 
eral policy  of  Philip,  but  impossible  to  divine  the  par- 
ticular plans  by  which  it  was  to  be  carried  out.  If 
such  was  the  veil  which  hid  the  monarch's  purposes 
even  from  the  eyes  of  those  who  had  nearest  access 
to  his  person,  how  can  we  hope  at  this  distance  of 
time  to  penetrate  it?  Yet  the  historian  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  is  admitted  to  the  perusal  of  many 
an  authentic  document  revealing  the  royal  purpose, 
which  never  came  under  the  eye  of  the  courtier  of 
Madrid. 

With  all  the  light  thus  afforded,  it  is  still  difficult  to 
say  whether  Philip  ever  was  sincere  in  his  professions 
of  visiting  the  Netherlands.  If  he  were  so  at  any 
time,  it  certainly  was  not  after  he  had  decided  on  the 
mission  of  Alva.  Philip  widely  differed  from  his 
father  in  a  sluggishness  of  body  which  made  any 
undertaking  that  required  physical  effort  exceedingly 
irksome.  He  shrank  from  no  amount  of  sedentary 
labor,  would  toil  from  morning  till  midnight  in  his 
closet,  like  the  humblest  of  his  secretaries.  But  a 
journey  was  a  great  undertaking.  After  his  visits, 
during  his  father's  lifetime,  to  England  and  the  Low 
Countries,  he  rarely  travelled  farther,  as  his  graceless 
son  satirically  hinted,  than  from  Madrid  to  Aranjuez, 
or  Madrid  to  the  Escorial.  A  thing  so  formidable  as 
an  expedition  to  Flanders,  involving  a  tedious  journey 

'o  "  II  repute,"  says  Gachard,  "dans  une  depeche  du  V^''  septembre, 
qu'au  milieu  des  bruits  contradictoires  qui  circulent  \  la  cour,  il  est 
impossible  de  demeler  la  verite."  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II., 
torn,  i.,  Rapport,  p.  clvi. 


136      ALVA   SENT  TO   THE  NETHERLANDS. 

through  an  unfriendly  land,  or  a  voyage  through  seas 
not  less  unfriendly,  was  what,  under  ordinary  circum- 
stances, the  king  would  have  never  dreamed  of. 

The  present  aspect  of  affairs,  moreover,  had  nothing 
in  it  particularly  inviting, — especially  to  a  prince  of 
Philip's  temper.  Never  was  there  a  prince  more  jealous 
of  his  authority ;  and  the  indignities  to  which  he  might 
have  been  exposed,  in  the  disorderly  condition  of  the 
country,  might  well  have  come  to  the  aid  of  his  con- 
stitutional sluggishness  to  deter  him  from  the  visit. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  not  strange  that 
Philip,  if  he  had  ever  entertained  a  vague  project  of  a 
journey  to  the  Netherlands,  should  have  yielded  to  his 
natural  habit  of  procrastination.  The  difficulties  of  a 
winter's  voyage,  the  necessity  of  summoning  cortes  and 
settling  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom,  his  own  protracted 
illness,  furnished  so  many  apologies  for  postponing  the 
irksome  visit  until  the  time  had  passed  when  such  a 
visit  could  be  effectual. 

That  he  should  so  strenuously  have  asserted  his  pur- 
pose of  going  to  the  Netherlands  may  be  explained  by 
a  desire  in  some  sort  to  save  his  credit  with  those  who 
seemed  to  think  that  the  present  exigency  demanded 
he  should  go.  He  may  have  also  thought  it  politic  to 
keep  up  the  idea  of  a  visit  to  the  Low  Countries,  in 
order  to  curb — as  it  no  doubt  had  the  effect  in  some 
degree  of  curbing — the  license  of  the  people,  who 
believed  they  were  soon  to  be  called  to  a  reckoning 
for  their  misdeeds  by  the  prince  in  person.  After  all, 
the  conduct  of  Philip  on  this  occasion,  and  the  motives 
assigned  for  his  delay  in  his  letters  to  Margaret,  must 
be  allowed  to  afford  a  curious  coincidence  with  those 


HIS  APPOINTMENT. 


137 


ascribed,  in  circumstances  not  dissimilar,  by  the  Roman 
historian  to  Tiberius." 

On  the  fifteenth  of  April,  1567,  Alva  had  his  last 
audience  of  Philip  at  Aranjuez.  He  immediately  after 
departed  for  Carthagena,  where  a  fleet  of  thirty-six 
vessels,  under  the  Genoese  Admiral  Doria,  lay  riding 
at  anchor  to  receive  him.  He  was  detained  some  time 
for  the  arrival  of  the  troops,  and  while  there  he  received 
despatches  from  the  court  containing  his  commission 
of  captain-general  and  particular  instructions  as  to  the 
course  he  was  to  pursue  in  the  Netherlands.  They 
were  so  particular  that,  notwithstanding  the  broad 
extent  of  his  powers,  the  duke  wrote  to  his  master 
complaining  of  his  want  of  confidence  and  declaring 
that  he  had  never  been  hampered  by  instructions  so 
minute,  even  under  the  emperor."  One  who  has 
studied  the  character  of  Philip  will  find  no  difficulty 
in  believing  it. 

On  the  twenty-seventh  of  April  the  fleet  weighed 
anchor;  but,  in  consequence  of  a  detention  of  some 
days  at  several  places  on  the  Catalan  coast,  it  did  not 
reach  the  Genoese  port  of  Savona  till  the  seventeenth 
of  the  next  month.  The  duke  had  been  ill  when  he 
went  on  board,  and  his  gouty  constitution  received  no 
benefit  from  the  voyage.  Yet  he  did  not  decline  the 
hospitalities  offered  by  the  Genoese  nobles,  who  vied 

"  "Ceterum,  ut  jam  jamque  iturus,  legit  comites,  conquisivit  im- 
pedimenta, adornavit  naves :  mox  hiemem  aut  negotia  varie  causa- 
tus  primo  prudentes,  dein  vulgum,  diutissime  provincias  fefellit." 
Taciti  Annales,  I.  xlvii. 

"  "  Es  la  primera  que  se  me  da  en  mi  vida  de  cosas  desta  calidad 
en  cuantas  veces  he  serv'ido,  ni  de  su  Magestad  CesArea  que  Dios 
tenga,  ni  de  V.  M."     Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  354. 

12* 


1 38      ALVA   SENT  TO   THE  NETHERLANDS. 

with  the  senate  in  showing  the  Spanish  commander 
every  testimony  of  respect.  At  Asti  he  was  waited 
on  by  Albuquerque,  the  Milanese  viceroy,  and  by 
ambassadors  from  different  Italian  provinces,  eager  to 
pay  homage  to  the  military  representative  of  the  Span- 
ish monarch.  But  the  gout  under  which  Alva  labored 
was  now  aggravated  by  an  attack  of  tertian  ague,  and 
for  a  week  or  more  he  was  confined  to  his  bed. 

Meanwhile  the  troops  had  assembled  at  the  appointed 
rendezvous,  and  the  duke,  as  soon  as  he  had  got  the 
better  of  his  disorder,  made  haste  to  review  them. 
They  amounted  in  all  to  about  ten  thousand  men,  of 
whom  less  than  thirteen  hundred  were  cavalry.  But, 
though  small  in  amount,  it  was  a  picked  body  of 
troops,  such  as  was  hardly  to  be  matched  in  Europe. 
The  infantry,  in  particular,  were  mostly  Spaniards, — 
veterans  who  had  been  accustomed  to  victory  under 
the  banner  of  Charles  the  Fifth,  and  many  of  them 
trained  to  war  under  the  eye  of  Alva  himself.  He 
preferred  such  a  body,  compact  and  well  disciplined  as 
it  was,  to  one  which,  unwieldy  from  its  size,  would 
have  been  less  fitted  for  a  rapid  march  across  the 
mountains. '3 

'3  A  magnanimous  Castilian  historian  pronounces  a  swelling  pane- 
gyric on  this  little  army  in  a  couple  of  lines  :  "  Los  Soldados  podian 
ser  Capitanes,  los  Capitanes  Maestros  de  Campo,  y  los  Maestros  de 
Campo  Generales."  Hechos  de  Sancho  Davila  (Valladolid,  1713), 
p.  26. — The  chivalrous  Brantome  dwells  with  delight  on  the  gallant 
bearing  and  brilliant  appointments  of  these  troops,  whom  he  saw  in 
their  passage  tlirough  Lorraine:  "Tous  vieux  et  aguerrys  soldatz, 
tant  bien  en  poinct  d'habillement  et  d'armes,  la  pluspart  dorees,  et 
Tautre  gravies,  qu'on  les  prenoit  plustost  pour  capitaines  que  sol- 
dats."     CEuvres,  torn.  i.  p.  60. 


HIS  REMARKABLE  MARCH. 


139 


Besides  those  of  the  common  file,  there  were  many 
gentlemen  and  cavaliers  of  note,  who,  weary  of  repose, 
came  as  volunteers  to  gather  fresh  laurels  under  so  re- 
nowned a  chief  as  the  duke  of  Alva.  Among  these  was 
Vitelli,  marquis  of  Cetona,  a  Florentine  soldier  of  high 
repute  in  his  profession,  but  who,  though  now  embarked 
in  what  might  be  called  a  war  of  religion,  was  held  so 
indifferent  to  religion  of  any  kind  that  a  whimsical 
epitaph  on  the  skeptic  denies  him  the  possession  of  a 
soul.'*  Another  of  these  volunteers  was  Mondragone, 
a  veteran  of  Charles  the  Fifth,  whose  character  for 
chivalrous  exploit  was  unstained  by  those  deeds  of 
cruelty  and  rapine  which  were  so  often  the  reproach 
of  the  cavalier  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  duties 
of  the  commissariat,  particularly  difficult  in  a  campaign 
like  the  present,  were  intrusted  to  an  experienced  Span- 
ish officer  named  Ibarra.  To  the  duke  of  Savoy  Alva 
was  indebted  for  an  eminent  engineer  named  Paciotti, 
whose  services  proved  of  great  importance  in  the  con- 
struction of  fortresses  in  the  Netherlands.  Alva  had 
also  brought  with  him  his  two  sons,  Frederick  and 
Ferdinand  de  Toledo, — the  latter  an  illegitimate  child, 
for  whom  the  father  showed  as  much  affection  as  it  was 
in  his  rugged  nature  to  feel  for  any  one.  To  Ferdinand 
was  given  the  command  of  the  cavalry,  composed  chiefly 
of  Italians. '5 

^     "  Corpus  in  Italia  est,  tenet  intestina  Brabantus ; 
Ast  animam  nemo.     Cur?  quia  non  habuit." 
Borgnet,  Philippe  II.  et  la  Belgique,  p.  60. 

»s  No  two  writers,  of  course,  agree  in  the  account  of  Alva's  forces. 
The  exact  returns  of  the  amount  of  the  whole  army,  as  well  as  of  each 
company,  and  the  name  of  the  officer  who  commanded  it,  are  to  be 
found  in  the  Documentos  ineditos  (torn.  iv.  p.  382).     From  this  it 


I40      ALVA   SENT  TO   THE  NETHERLANDS. 

Having  reviewed  his  forces,  the  duke  formed  them 
into  three  divisions.  This  he  did  in  order  to  provide 
the  more  easily  for  their  subsistence  on  his  long  and 
toilsome  journey.  The  divisions  were  to  be  separated 
from  one  another  by  a  day's  march ;  so  that  each  would 
take  up  at  night  the  same  quarters  which  had  been 
occupied  by  the  preceding  division  on  the  night  before. 
Alva  himself  led  the  van.'* 

He  dispensed  with  artillery,  not  willing  to  embarrass 
his  movements  in  his  passage  across  the  mountains. 
But  he  employed  what  was  then  a  novelty  in  war. 
Each  company  of  foot  was  flanked  by  a  body  of 
soldiers  carrying  heavy  muskets  with  rests  attached 
to  them.  This  sort  of  fire-arms,  from  their  cumbrous 
nature,  had  hitherto  been  used  only  in  the  defence  of 
fortresses.  But  with  these  portable  rests  they  were 
found  efficient  for  field-service,  and  as  such  came  into 
general  use  after  this  period.'^     Their  introduction  by 

appears  that  the  precise  number  of  horse  was  1250,  and  that  of  the 
foot  8800,  making  a  total  of  10,050. 

»*  A  poem  in  ottava  riina,  commemorating  Alva's  expedition,  ap- 
p>eared  at  Antwerp  the  year  following,  from  the  pen  of  one  Balthazar 
de  Vargas.  It  has  more  value  in  an  historical  point  of  view  than  in  a 
poetical  one.  A  single  stanza,  which  the  bard  devotes  to  the  victual^ 
ling  of  the  army,  will  probably  satisfy  the  appetite  of  the  reader: 

"  y  por  que  la  Savoya  es  montanosa, 
Y  an  de  passar  por  ella  las  legiones, 
Seria  la  passada  trabajosa 
Si  4  la  gente  faltassen  provisiones. 
El  real  comissario  no  rcposa. 
Haze  llevar  de  Italia  municiones 
Tantas  que  proveyo  todo  el  camino 
Que  jamas  falto  el  pan,  y  carne,  y  vino." 

'7  Ossorio,  Albae  Vita,  torn.  ii.  p.  237. — Trillo,  Rebelion  y  Guerras 


HIS  REMARKABLE  MARCH.  141 

Alva  may  be  regarded,  therefore,  as  an  event  of  some 
importance  in  the  history  of  military  art. 

The  route  that  Alva  proposed  to  take  was  that  over 
Mount  Cenis,  the  same,  according  to  tradition,  by 
which  Hannibal  crossed  the  great  barrier  some  eigh- 
teen centuries  before.'^  If  less  formidable  than  in  the 
days  of  the  Carthaginian,  it  was  far  from  being  the 
practicable  route  so  easily  traversed,  whether  by  trooper 
or  tourist,  at  the  present  day.  Steep  rocky  heights, 
shaggy  with  forests,  where  the  snows  of  winter  still 
lingered  in  the  midst  of  June ;  fathomless  ravines, 
choked  up  with  the  debris  washed  down  by  the  moun- 
tain-torrent ;  paths  scarcely  worn  by  the  hunter  and 
his  game,  affording  a  precarious  footing  on  the  edge 
of  giddy  precipices ;  long  and  intricate  defiles,  where 
a  handful  of  men  might  hold  an  army  at  bay  and  from 
the  surrounding  heights  roll  down  ruin  on  their  heads; 
— these  were  the  obstacles  which  Alva  and  his  followers 
had  to  encounter,  as  they  threaded  their  toilsome  way 
through  a  country  where  the  natives  bore  no  friendly 
disposition  to  the  Spaniards. 

de  Flandes  (Madrid,  1592),  fol.  17. — Leti,  Vita  di  Filippo  II.,  torn.  i. 
p.  490. 

'8  So  say  Schiller  (Abfall  der  Niederlande,  S.  363),  Cabrera  (Filipe 
Segundo,  lib.  vii.  cap.  15),  et  auct.  al.  But  every  schoolboy  knows 
that  nothing  is  more  unsettled  than  the  route  taken  by  Hannibal 
across  the  Alps.  The  two  oldest  authorities,  Livy  and  Polybius, 
differ  on  the  point,  and  it  has  remained  a  ve.xed  question  ever  since, 
— the  criticism  of  later  years,  indeed,  leaning  to  still  another  route, 
that  across  the  Little  St.  Bernard.  The  passage  of  Hannibal  forms 
the  subject  of  a  curious  discussion  introduced  into  Gibbon's  journal, 
when  the  young  historian  was  in  training  for  the  mighty  task  of  riper 
years.  His  reluctance,  even  at  the  close  of  his  argument,  to  strike 
the  balance,  is  singularly  characteristic  of  his  skeptical  mind. 


142      ALVA   SENT  TO    THE  NETHERLANDS. 

Their  route  lay  at  no  great  distance  from  Geneva, 
that  stronghold  of  the  Reformers ;  and  Pius  the  Fifth 
would  have  persuaded  the  duke  to  turn  from  his  course 
and  exterminate  this  "nest  of  devils  and  apostates,'"' 
— ^as  the  Christian  father  was  pleased  to  term  them. 
The  people  of  Geneva,  greatly  alarmed  at  the  prospect 
of  an  invasion,  applied  to  their  Huguenot  brethren  for 
aid.  The  prince  of  Conde  and  the  Admiral  Coligni — 
the  leaders  of  that  party — offered  their  services  to  the 
French  monarch  to  raise  fifty  thousand  men,  fall  upon 
his  old  enemies  the  Spaniards,  and  cut  them  off  in 
the  passes  of  the  mountains.  But  Charles  the  Ninth 
readily  understood  the  drift  of  this  proposal.  Though 
he  bore  little  love  to  the  Spaniards,  he  bore  still  less 
to  the  Reformers.  He  therefore  declined  this  offer  of 
the  Huguenot  chiefs,  adding  that  he  was  able  to  pro- 
tect France  without  their  assistance.""  The  Genevans 
were  accordingly  obliged  to  stand  to  their  own  de- 
fence, though  they  gathered  confidence  from  the 
promised  support  of  their  countrymen  of  Berne ;  and 
the  whole  array  of  these  brave  mountaineers  was  in 
arms,  ready  to  repel  any  assault  of  the  Spaniards. on 
their  own  territory  or  on  that  of  their  allies,  in  their 
passage  through  the  country.*     But  this  was  unneces- 

•9  "A  suidar  da  quel  nido  di  Demoni,  le  sceleraggini  di  tanti  Ap- 
postati."     Leti,  Vita  di  Filippo  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  487. 

«>  The  Huguenots  even  went  so  far  as  to  attempt  to  engage  the 
Reformed  in  the  Low  Countries  to  join  them  in  assaulting  the  duke  in 


*  [Geneva  was  not  then  a  member  of  the  Swiss  Confederacy,  as  the 
language  in  the  text  would  imply,  and,  though  Berne  offered  to  send 
a  thousand  men  for  its  protection,  a  French  garrison  was  accepted  in 
preference.      The  other  cantons  refused  to  raise  any  troops,  their 


HIS  REMARKABLE  MARCH. 


143 


sary.  Though  Alva  passed  within  six  leagues  of  Ge- 
neva, and  the  request  of  the  pontiff  was  warmly 
seconded  by  the  duke  of  Savoy,  the  Spanisli  general 
did  not  deem  it  prudent  to  comply  with  it,  declaring 
that  his  commission  extended  no  further  than  to  the 
Netherlands.  Without  turning  to  the  right  or  to  the 
left,  he  held  on,  therefore,  straight  towards  the  mark, 
anxious  only  to  extricate  himself  as  speedily  as  possible 
from  the  perilous  passes  where  he  might  be  taken  at  so 
obvious  disadvantage  by  an  enemy. 

Yet  such  were  the  difficulties  he  had  to  encounter 
that  a  fortnight  elapsed  before  he  was  able  to  set  foot 
on  the  friendly  plains  of  Burgundy, — that  part  of  the 
ancient  duchy  which  acknowledged  the  authority  of 
Spain.*  Here  he  received  the  welcome  addition  to  his 
ranks  of  four  hundred  horse,  the  flower  of  the  Bur- 
gundian  chivalry.  On  his  way  across  the  country  he 
was  accompanied  by  a  French  army  of  observation, 
some  six  thousand  strong,  which  moved  in  a  parallel 

his  march  through  Savoy.  Their  views  were  expressed  in  a  work 
which  circulated  widely  in  the  provinces,  though  it  failed  to  rouse  the 
people  to  throw  off  the  Spanish  yoke.  See  Vandervynckt,  Troubles 
des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  p.  194. 


jealousy  of  Berne  being  such  at  this  period  that  they  would  have  been 
very  wilhng,  according  to  the  native  historians,  to  see  its  power,  which 
had  been  extended  by  conquest,  crippled  by  a  foreign  enemy.  Mean- 
while, the  envoys  of  Spain  and  Savoy  gave  assurances  to  the  Council 
of  Berne  that  no  hostilities  were  intended  by  Alva,  and  that  the 
strictest  discipline  would  be  maintained  on  the  march,  the  Conde  de 
Anguisola  offering  to  remain  as  a  hostage  till  the  danger  was  past. 
Tillier,  Geschichte  des  Freistaates  Bern,  B.  iii.  S.  423-425. — Ed.] 

*  [The  county  of  Burgundy  is  meant:   no  part  of  the  duchy  was 
subject  to  Philip. — Ed.] 


144      ALVA    SENT  TO    THE  NETHERLANDS. 

direction,  at  the  distance  of  six  or  seven  leagues  only 
from  the  line  of  march  pursued  by  the  Spaniards, — 
though  without  offering  them  any  molestation. 

Soon  after  entering  Lorraine,  Alva  was  met  by  the 
duke  of  that  province,  who  seemed  desirous  to  show 
him  every  respect,  and  entertained  him  with  princely 
hospitality.  After  a  brief  detention,  the  Spanish  gen- 
eral resumed  his  journey,  and  on  the  eighth  of  August 
crossed  the  frontiers  of  the  Netherlands. "" 

His  long  and  toilsome  march  had  been  accomplished 
without  an  untoward  accident,  and  with  scarcely  a  dis- 
orderly act  on  the  part  of  the  soldiers.  No  man's 
property  had  been  plundered.  No  peasant's  hut  had 
been  violated.  The  cattle  had  been  allowed  to  graze 
unmolested  in  the  fields,  and  the  flocks  to  wander  in 
safety  over  their  mountain-pastures.  One  instance  only 
to  the  contrary  is  mentioned, — that  of  three  troopers 
who  carried  off  one  or  two  straggling  sheep  as  the 
army  was  passing  through  Lorraine.  But  they  were 
soon  called  to  a  heavy  reckoning  for  their  transgres- 
sion. Alva,  on  being  informed  of  the  fact,  sentenced 
them  all  to  the  gallows.  At  the  intercession  of  the 
duke  of  Lorraine,  the  sentence  was  so  far  mitigated  by 

"  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  pp.  350-354. — Ossorio,  Albae 
Vita,  torn.  ii.  p.  232,  et  seq. — Hechos  de  Sancho  Davila,  p.  26. — 
Trillo,  Rebelion  y  Guerras  de  Flandes,  fol.  16,  17. — Cabrera,  Filipe 
Segimdo,  lib.  vii.  cap.  15. — Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  52. — 
Lanario,  Guerras  de  Flandes,  fol.  15. — Renom  de  Francia,  Alborotos 
de  Flandes,  MS. — Chronological  accuracy  was  a  thing  altogether 
beneath  the  attention  of  a  chronicler  of  the  sixteenth  century.  In  the 
confusion  of  dates  in  regard  to  Alva's  movements,  I  have  been  guided 
as  far  as  possible  by  his  ovk'n  despatches.  See  Documcntos  in6ditos, 
torn.  iv.  p.  349,  ct  seq. 


HIS  REMARKABLE  MARCH. 


145 


the  Spanish  commander  that  one  only  of  the  three,  se- 
lected by  lot,  was  finally  executed." 

The  admirable  discipline  maintained  among  Alva's 
soldiers  was  the  more  conspicuous  in  an  age  when  the 
name  of  soldier  was  synonymous  with  that  of  marauder. 
It  mattered  little  whether  it  were  a  friendly  country  or 
that  of  a  foe  through  which  lay  the  line  of  march.  The 
defenceless  peasant  was  everywhere  the  prey  of  the  war- 
rior; and  the  general  winked  at  the  outrages  of  his  fol- 
lowers as  the  best  means  of  settling  their  arrears. 

What  made  the  subordination  of  the  troops  in  the 
present  instance  still  more  worthy  of  notice  was  the 
great  number  of  camp-followers,  especially  courtesans, 
who  hung  on  the  skirts  of  the  army.  These  latter 
mustered  in  such  force  that  they  were  divided  into 
battalions  and  companies,  marching  each  under  its 
own  banner,  and  subjected  to  a  sort  of  military  or- 
ganization, like  the  men."^  The  duke  seems  to  have 
been  as  careless  of  the  morals  of  his  soldiers  as  he  was 
careful  of  their  discipline ;  perhaps  willing  by  his 
laxity  in  the  one  to  compensate  for  his  severity  in  the 
other. 

It  was  of  the  last  importance  to  Alva  that  his  sol- 
diers should  commit  no  trespass,  nor  entangle  him  in  a 
quarrel  with  the  dangerous  people  through  the  midst 
of  whom  he  was  to  pass,  and  who,  from  their  superior 

"  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  354. — Ossorio,  Albae  Vita, 
fom.  i.  p.  241. 

^  Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  52. — Old  Brantome  warms  as 
he  contemplates  these  Amazons,  as  beautiful  and  making  as  brave  a 
show  as  princesses !  "  Plus  il  y  avoit  quatre  cents  courtisanes  k  cheval, 
belles  et  braves  comme  princesses,  at  huict  cents  k  pied,  bien  en  point 
aussi."     CEuvres,  torn.  i.  p.  62. 

Philip. — Vol.  II. — g  13 


146      ALVA   SENT  TO   THE   NETHERLANDS. 

knowledge  of  the  country,  as  well  as  their  numbers, 
could  so  easily  overpower  him.  Fortunately,  he  had 
received  such  intimations  before  his  departure  as  put 
him  on  his  guard.  The  result  was  that  he  obtained 
such  a  mastery  over  his  followers,  and  enforced  so 
perfect  a  discipline,  as  excited  the  general  admiration 
of  his  contemporaries,  and  made  his  march  to  the  Low 
Countries  one  of  the  most  memorable  events  of  the 
period.^'' 

At  Thionville  the  duke  was  waited  on  by  Barlaimont 
and  Noircarmes,  who  came  to  offer  the  salutations  of 
the  regent  and  at  the  same  time  to  request  to  see  his 
powers.  At  the  same  place,  and  on  the  way  to  the 
capital,  the  duke  was  met  by  several  of  the  Flemish 
nobility,  who  came  to  pay  their  respects  to  him, — 
among  the  rest,  Egmont,  attended  by  forty  of  his  re- 
tainers. On  his  entering  Alva's  presence,  the  duke 
exclaimed  to  one  of  his  officers,  "Here  comes  a  great 
heretic  ! ' '  The  words  were  overheard  by  Egmont, 
who  hesitated  a  moment,  naturally  disconcerted  by 
what  would  have  served  as  an  effectual  warning  to  any 
other  man.  But  Alva  made  haste  to  efface  the  im- 
pression caused  by  his  heedless  exclamation,  receiving 
Egmont  with  so  much  cordiality  as  reassured  the  in- 
fatuated nobleman,  who,  regarding  the  words  as  a  jest, 
before  his  departure  presented  the  duke  with  two  beau- 
tiful horses.     Such  is  the  rather  singular  story  which 

»4  "  Ninguna  Historia  nos  ensena  haya  passado  un  Exercito  por 
Pais  tan  dilatado  y  marchas  tan  continuas,  sin  cometer  excesso :  La» 
del  Duque  es  la  unica  que  nos  la  hace  ver.  Encantd  Jl  todo  el  mundo." 
Rustant,  Historia  del  Duque  de  Alva,  torn.  ii.  p.  124. — So  also  Her- 
rera,  Historia  general,  torn.  i.  p.  650. — Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib. 
vii.  cap.  15.— Strada,  Dc  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  354. 


HE  ARRIVES  AT  BRUSSELS. 


147 


comes  down  to  us  on  what  must  be  admitted  to  be 
respectable  authority. ''s 

Soon  after  he  had  entered  the  country,  the  duke  de- 
tached the  greater  part  of  his  forces  to  garrison  some 
of  the  principal  cities  and  relieve  the  Walloon  troops 
on  duty  there,  less  to  be  trusted  than  his  Spanish  veter- 
ans. With  the  Milanese  brigade  he  took  the  road  to 
}3russels,  which  he  entered  on  the  twenty-second  of 
August.  His  cavalry  he  established  at  ten  leagues'  dis- 
tance from  the  capital,  and  the  infantry  he  lodged  in 
the  suburbs.  Far  from  being  greeted  by  acclamations, 
no  one  came  out  to  welcome  him  as  he  entered  the 
city,  which  seemed  like  a  place  deserted.  He  went 
straight  to  the  palace,  to  offer  his  homage  to  the  regent. 
An  altercation  took  place  on  the  threshold  between  his 
halberdiers  and  Margaret's  body-guard  of  archers,  who 
disputed  the  entrance  of  the  Spanish  soldiers.  The 
duke  himself  was  conducted  to  the  bedchamber  of  the 
duchess,  where  she  was  in  the  habit  of  giving  audience. 
She  was  standing,  with  a  few  Flemish  nobles  by  her 
side ;  and  she  remained  in  that  position,  without  stir- 
ring a  single  step  to  receive  her  visitor.  Both  parties 
continued  standing  during  the  interview,  which  lasted 
half  an  hour,  the  duke  during  the  greater  part  of  the 
time  with  his  hat  in  his  hand,  although  Margaret  re- 
quested him  to  be  covered.  The  curious  spectators  of 
this  conference  amused  themselves  by  contrasting  the 
courteous  and  even  deferential  manners  of  the  haughty 

*S  "  Comme  le  Due  le  vid  de  long,  il  dit  tout  haut ;  Voicy  le  grand 
hereticque,  dequoy  le  Comte  s'espouvanta :  neantmoins,  pource  qu'on 
le  pouvoit  entendre  en  deux  fafons,  il  I'interpreta  de  bonne  part." 
Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pajs-Bas,  fol.  53. 


148      ALVA   SENT  TO   THE  NETHERLANDS. 

Spaniard  with  the  chilling  reserve  and  stately  demeanor 
of  the  duchess."^  At  the  close  of  the  interview  Alva 
withdrew  to  his  own  quarters  at  Culemborg  House, — 
the  place,  it  will  be  remembered,  where  the  Gueux  held 
their  memorable  banquet  on  their  visit  to  Brussels. 

The  following  morning,  at  the  request  of  the  council 
of  state,  the  duke  of  Alva  furnished  that  body  with  a 
copy  of  his  commission.  By  this  he  was  invested  with 
the  title  of  captain-general,  and  in  that  capacity  was  to 
exercise  supreme  control  in  all  military  affairs.''  By 
another  commission,  dated  two  months  later,  these 
powers  were  greatly  enlarged.  The  country  was  de- 
clared in  a  state  of  rebellion ;  and,  as  milder  means 
had  failed  to  bring  it  to  obedience,  it  was  necessary  to 
resort  to  arms.  The  duke  was  therefore  commanded 
to  levy  war  on  the  refractory  people  and  reduce  them 
to  submission.  He  was,  moreover,  to  inquire  into  the 
causes  of  the  recent  troubles,  and  bring  the  suspected 
parties  to  trial,  with  full  authority  to  punish  or  to  par- 

26  "  Vimos  los  que  alii  estdbamos  que  el  Duque  de  Alba  us6  de 
grandisimos  respetos  y  buenas  crianzas,  y  que  Madama  estuvo  muy 
severa  y  mas  que  cuando  suelen  negociar  con  ella  Egmont  y  esios 
otros  Seiiores  de  acd,  cosa  que  fue  muy  notada  de  los  que  lo  miraban." 
— A  minute  account  of  this  interview,  as  given  in  the  text,  was  sent  to 
Philip  by  Mendivil,  an  officer  of  the  artillery,  and  is  inserted  in  the 
Documcntos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  397,  et  seq. 

"^  This  document,  dated  December  ist,  1566,  is  not  to  be  found  in 
the  Archives  of  Simancas,  as  we  may  infer  from  its  having  no  place  in 
the  Documentos  ineditos,  which  contains  the  succeeding  commission. 
A  copy  of  it  is  in  the  Belgian  archives,  and  has  been  incorporated  in 
Gachard's  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.  (tom.  ii..  Appendix,  No. 
88).  It  is  possible  that  a  copy  of  this  commission  was  sent  to  Mar- 
garet, as  it  agrees  so  well  with  what  the  king  had  written  to  her  on  the 
subject. 


HE  ARRIVES  AT  BRUSSELS. 


149 


don  as  he  might  judge  best  for  the  public  weal."^ 
Finally,  a  third  commission,  of  more  startling  import 
than  the  two  preceding,  and  which  indeed  might  seem 
to  supersede  them  altogether,  was  dated  three  months 
later,  on  the  first  of  March,  1567.  In  the  former  in- 
struments the  duke  was  so  far  required  to  act  in  subor- 
dination to  the  regent  that  her  authority  was  declared 
to  be  unimpaired.  But  by  virtue  of  this  last  commis- 
sion he  was  invested  with  supreme  control  in  civil  as 
well  as  military  affairs ;  and  persons  of  every  degree, 
including  the  regent  herself,  were  enjoined  to  render 
obedience  to  his  commands,  as  to  those  of  the  king.^ 
Such  a  commission,  which  placed  the  government  of 
the  country  in  the  hands  of  Alva,  was  equivalent  to  a 
dismissal  of  Margaret.  The  title  of  "regent,"  which 
still  remained  to  her,  was  an  empty  mockery ;  nor  could 
it  be  thought  that  she  would  be  content  to  retain  a 
barren  sceptre  in  the  country  over  which  she  had  so 
long  ruled. 

It  is  curious  to  observe  the  successive  steps  by  which 
Philip  had  raised  Alva  from  the  rank  of  captain-general 

28  To  this  second  commission,  dated  January  31st,  1567,  was  ap- 
pended a  document,  signed  also  by  Philip,  the  purport  of  which 
seems  to  have  been  to  explain  more  precisely  the  nature  of  the  powers 
intrusted  to  the  duke, — which  it  does  in  so  liberal  a  fashion  that  it  may 
be  said  to  double  those  powers.  Both  papers,  the  originals  of  which 
are  preserved  in  Simancas,  have  been  inserted  in  the  Documentos 
ineditos,  torn.  iv.  pp.  388-396. 

=9  "  Par  quoy  requerrons  'k  ladicte  dame  duchesse,  nostre  seur,  at 
commandons  k  tous  noz  vassaulx  et  subjectz,  de  obeyr  audict  due 
d'Alve  en  ce  qu'il  leur  commandcra,  et  de  par  nous,  comme  aiant  telle 
charge,  et  comme  k  nostre  propre  personne." — This  instrument,  taken 
from  the  Belgian  archives,  is  given  entirely  by  Gachard,  Correspon- 
dance  de  Philippe  II.,  tom,  ii.  Appendix,  No.  102. 
13* 


150      ALVA   SENT  TO    THE   NETHERLANDS. 

of  the  army  to  supreme  authority  in  the  country.  It 
would  seem  as  if  the  king  were  too  tenacious  of  power 
readily  to  part  with  it,  and  that  it  was  only  by  succes- 
sive efforts,  as  the  conviction  of  the  necessity  of  such  a 
step  pressed  more  and  more  on  his  mind,  that  he  de- 
termined to  lodge  the  government  in  the  hands  of 
.Alva. 
^^Vhether  the  duke  acquainted  the  council  with  the 
full  extent  of  his  powers,  or,  as  seems  more  probable 
communicated  to  that  body  only  his  first  two  commis- 
sions, it  is  impossible  to  say.  At  all  events,  the  mem- 
bers do  not  appear  to  have  been  prepared  for  the  exhi- 
bition of  powers  so  extensive,  and  which,  even  in  the 
second  of  the  commissions,  transcended  those  exercised 
by  the  regent  herself.  A  consciousness  that  they  did 
so  had  led  Philip,  in  more  than  one  instance,  to  qualify 
the  language  of  the  instrument  in  such  a  manner  as  not 
to  rouse  the  jealousy  of  his  sister, — an  artifice  so  ob- 
vious that  it  probably  produced  a  contrary  effect.  At 
any  rate,  Margaret  did  not  affect  to  conceal  her  disgust, 
but  talked  openly  of  the  affront  put  on  her  by  the 
king,  and  avowed  her  determination  to  throw  up  the 
government.^ 

She  gave  little  attention  to  business,  passing  most  of 
her  days  in  hunting,  of  which  masculine  sport  she  was  ex- 
cessively fond.  She  even  threatened  to  amuse  herself 
with  journeying  about  from  place  to  place,  leaving 
public  affairs  to  take  care  of  themselves,  till  she  should 

30  "  Despues  que  los  han  visto  han  quedado  todos  mxiy  lastimados, 
y  d  todos  cuantos  Madama  habla  les  dice  que  se  quiere  ir  d  su  casa 
por  los  agravios  que  V.  M.  le  ha  liecho."  Carta  de  Mcndivil,  ap, 
Documentos  ineditoa,  torn.  iv.  p.  399. 


MARGARET  DISGUSTED. 


151 


receive  the  king's  permission  to  retire.^'  From  this  in- 
dulgence of  her  spleen  she  was  dissuaded  by  her  secretary, 
Armenteros,  who,  shifting  his  sails  to  suit  the  breeze, 
showed,  soon  after  Alva's  coming,  his  intention  to  pro- 
pitiate the  new  governor.  There  were  others  of  Mar- 
garet's adherents  less  accommodating.  Some  high  in 
office  intimated  very  plainly  their  discontent  at  the 
presence  of  the  Spaniards,  from  which  they  boded  only 
calamity  to  the  country.^''  Margaret's  confessor,  in  a 
sermon  preached  before  the  regent,  did  not  scriiple  to 
denounce  the  Spaniards  as  so  many  "knaves,  traitors, 
and  ravishers. "  33  And  although  the  remonstrance  of 
the  loyal  Armenteros  induced  the  duchess  to  send  back 
the  honest  man  to  his  convent,  it  was  plain,  from  the 
warm  terms  in  which  she  commended  the  preacher, 
that  she  was  far  from  being  displeased  with  his  dis- 
course. 

The  duke  of  Alva  cared  little  for  the  hatred  of  the 
Flemish  lords. ^  But  he  felt  otherwise  towards  the  re- 
gent. He  would  willingly  have  soothed  her  irritation, 
and  he  bent  his  haughty  spirit  to  show,  in  spite  of  her 
coldness,  a  deference  in  his  manner  that  must  have 
done  some  violence  to  his  nature.     As  a  mark  of  re- 

31  Carta  de  Mendivil,  ap.  Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  403. 

32  Ibid.,  p.  400. 

33  "  En  todo  el  sermon  no  trato  cuasi  de  otra  cosa  sino  de  que  lo^ 
espanoles  eran  traidores  y  ladrones,  y  forzadores  de  mugeres,  y  que 
totalmente  el  pais  que  los  sufria  era  destruido,  con  tanto  escandolo  y 
inaldad  que  merescia  ser  quemado."     Ibid.,  p.  401. 

34  Yet  there  was  danger  in  it,  if,  as  Armenteros  warned  the  duke,  to 
leave  his  house  would  be  at  the  risk  of  his  life :  "  Tambien  me  ha 
dicho  Tomds  de  Armenteros  que  diga  al  Duque  de  Alba  que  en  nin- 
guna  manera  como  fuera  de  su  casa  porque  si  lo  hace  sera  con  notable 
peligro  de  la  vida."     Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


152 


ALVA   SENT  TO   THE  NETHERLANDS. 


spect,  he  proposed  at  once  to  pay  her  another  visit,  and 
in  great  state,  as  suited  her  rank.  But  Margaret,  feign- 
ing or  feeling  herself  too  ill  to  receive  him,  declined 
his  visit  for  some  days,  and  at  last,  perhaps  to  mortify 
him  the  more,  vouchsafed  him  only  a  private  audience 
in  her  own  apartment. 

Yet  at  this  interview  she  showed  more  condescension 
than  before,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  assure  the  duke 
that  there  was  no  one  whose  appointment  would  have 
been  more  acceptable  to  her.^  She  followed  this  by 
bluntly  demand.'ng  why  he  had  been  sent  at  all.  Alva 
replied  that,  as  she  had  often  intimated  her  desire  for  a 
more  efficient  military  force,  he  had  come  to  aid  her  in 
the  execution  of  her  measures,  and  to  restore  peace  to 
the  country  before  the  arrival  of  his  majesty. ^^  The 
answer  could  hardly  have  pleased  the  duchess,  who 
doubtless  considered  she  had  done  that,  without  his 
aid,  already. 

--/  The  discourse  fell  upon  the  mode  of  quartering  the 
troops.  Alva  proposed  to  introduce  a  Spanish  garrison 
into  Brussels.  To  this  Margaret  objected  with  great 
energy.  But  the  duke  on  this  point  was  inflexible. 
Brussels  was  the  royal  residence,  and  the  quiet  of  the 
city  could  only  be  secured  by  a  garrison.  "If  people 
murmur,"  he  concluded,  "you  can  tell  them  I  am  a 

35  "  Despues  de  haberse  sentado  le  dijo  el  contentamiento  que  tenia 
de  su  venida  y  que  ningxin  otro  pudiera  venir  con  quien  ella  mas  se 
holgara."  Carta  de  Mendivil,  ap.  Documentos  in6ditos,  torn.  iv. 
p.  404. 

36  "  Que  lo  que  principalmente  traia  era  estar  aqui  con  esta  gente 
para  que  la  justicia  fucse  obedecida  y  respetada,  y  los  mandamientos 
de  S.  E.  ejecutadas,  y  que  S.  M.  d  su  venida  hallase  esto  en  la  paz, 
tranquilidad  y  sosiego  que  era  razon."     Ibid,,  p.  406. 


MARGARET  DISGUSTED. 


153 


headstrong  man,  bent  on  having  my  own  way.  I  am 
willing  to  take  all  the  odium  of  the  measure  on  my- 
self. "^^  Thus  thwarted,  and  made  to  feel  her  infe- 
riority when  any  question  of  real  power  was  involved, 
Margaret  felt  the  humiliation  of  her  position  even  more 
keenly  than  before.  The  appointment  of  Alva  had 
been  from  the  first,  as  we  have  seen,  a  source  of  morti- 
fication to  the  duchess.  In  December,  1566,  soon 
after  Philip  had  decided  on  sending  the  duke,  with  the 
authority  of  captain-general,  to  the  Low  Countries,  he 
announced  it  in  a  letter  to  Margaret.  He  had  been  as 
much  perplexed,  he  said,  in  the  choice  of  a  com- 
mander as  she  could  have  been ;  and  it  was  only  at 
her  suggestion  of  the  necessity  of  some  one  to  take  the 
military  command  that  he  had  made  such  a  nomina- 
tion. .  Alva  was,  however,  only  to  prepare  the  way  for 
him,  to  assemble  a  force  on  the  frontier,  establish  the 
garrisons,  and  enforce  discipline  among  the  troops  till 
he  came. 3^  Philip  was  careful  not  to  alarm  his  sister 
by  any  hint  of  the  extraordinary  powers  to  be  conferred 
on  the  duke,  who  thus  seemed  to  be  sent  only  in  obe- 
dience to  her  suggestion  and  in  subordination  to  her 
authority.  Margaret  knew  too  well  that  Alva  was  not 
a  man  to  act  in  subordination  to  any  one.  But  what- 
ever misgivings  she  may  have  had,  she  hardly  betrayed 
them  in  her  reply  to  Philip,  in  the  following  February, 
1567,  when  she  told  the  king  she  "was  sure  he  would 

37  "  Podrase  escusar  con  estos  diciendoles  que  yo  soy  cabezudo  y 
que  he  estado  muy  opinatre  en  sacar  de  aqui  esta  gente,  que  yo 
huelgo  de  que  d  ml  se  me  eche  la  culpa  y  de  llevar  el  odio  sobre  mi  i. 
h-ueque  de  que  V.  E.  quede  descargada."  Carta  de  Mendivil,  ap, 
Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  408. 

38  Supplement  ^  Strada,  tom.  ii.  p.  524. 


154 


ALVA    SENT  TO    THE  NETHERLANDS. 


never  be  so  unjust,  and  do  a  thing  so  prejudicial  to  the 
interests  of  the  country,  as  to  transfer  to  another  the 
powers  he  had  vested  in  her. ' '  '^ 

The  appointment  of  Alva  may  have  stimulated  the 
regent  to  the  extraordinary  efforts  she  then  made  to 
reduce  the  country  to  order.  When  she  had  achieved 
this,  she  opened  her  mind  more  freely  to  her  brother, 
in  a  letter  dated  July  12th,  1567.  ''The  name  of  Alva 
was  so  odious  in  the  Netherlands  that  it  was  enough  to 
make  the  whole  Spanish  nation  detested. "•"  She  could 
never  have  imagined  that  the  king  would  make  such 
an  appointment  without  consulting  her."  She  then, 
alluding  to  orders  lately  received  from  Madrid,  shows 
extreme  repugnance  to  carry  out  the  stern  policy  of 
Philip,"* — a  repugnance,  it  must  be  confessed,  that 
seems  to  rest  less  on  the  character  of  the  measures 
than  on  the  dififictilty  of  their  execution. 

When  the  duchess  learned  that  Alva  was  in  Italy,  she 
wrote  also  to  him,  hoping  at  this  late  hour  to  arrest  his 
progress  by  the  assurance  that  the  troubles  were  now  at 
an  end  and  that  his  appearance  at  the  head  of  an  army 
would  only  serve  to  renew  them.  But  the  duke  was 
preparing  for  his  march  across  the  Alps,  and  it  would 
have  been  as  easy  to  stop  the  avalanche  in  its  descent 
as  to  stay  the  onward  course  of  this  ''man  of  destiny." 

The  state  of  Margaret's  feelings  was  shown  by  the 

39"Tenendo  per  certo  che  V.  M.  non  vorrk  desautorizarnii,  per 
autorizare  altri,  poi  che  questo  non  e  giusto,  ne  manco  saria  servitio 
suo,  se  non  gran  danno  et  inconveniente  per  tuttili  negotii."  Corre- 
spondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  505. 

40  "  II  y  est  si  odieu.x  qu'il  suffirait  h.  y  faire  hair  toute  la  nation 
espagnole."     Ibid.,  p.  556. 

4»  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


ANECDOTES   OF  THE  DUKE. 


155 


chilling  reception  she  gave  the  duke  on  his  arrival  in 
Brussels.  The  extent  of  his  powers,  so  much  beyond 
what  she  had  imagined,  did  not  tend  to  soothe  the 
irritation  of  the  regent's  temper;  and  the  result  of  the 
subsequent  interview  filled  up  the  measure  of  her  in- 
dignation. However  forms  might  be  respected,  it  was 
clear  the  power  had  passed  into  other  hands.  She 
wrote  at  once  to  Philip,  requesting,  or  rather  requiring, 
his  leave  to  withdraw  without  delay  from  the  country. 
"  If  he  had  really  felt  the  concern  he  professed  for  her 
welfare  and  reputation,  he  would  have  allowed  her  to 
quit  the  government  before  being  brought  into  rivalry 
with  a  man  like  the  duke  of  Alva,  who  took  his  own 
course  in  everything,  without  the  least  regard  to  her. 
It  afflicted  her  to  the  bottom  of  her  soul  to  have  been 
thus  treated  by  the  king."  "^ 

It  may  have  given  some  satisfaction  to  Margaret  that 
in  her  feelings  towards  the  duke  she  had  the  entire 
sympathy  of  the  nation.  In  earlier  days,  in  the  time 
of  Charles  the  Fifth,  Alva  had  passed  some  time  both 
in  Germany  and  in  the  Netherlands,  and  had  left  there 
no  favorable  impression  of  his  character.  In  the  former 
country,  indeed,  his  haughty  deportment  on  a  question 
of  etiquette  had  caused  some  embarrassment  to  nis 
master.  Alva  insisted  on  the  strange  privilege  of  the 
Castilian  grandee  to  wear  his  hat  in  the  presence  of 
his  sovereign.  The  German  nobles,  scandalized  by 
this  pretension  in  a  subject,  asserted  that  their  order 
had  as  good  a  right  to  it  as  the  Spaniards.  It  was 
not  without  difficulty  that  the  proud  duke  was  con- 

4=  "  Elle  est  affectee,  jusq'iui  fond  de  I'ame,  de  la  conduite  du  Roi 
&  son  egard."     Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  367. 


156      ALVA   SENT  TO   THE  NETHERLANDS. 

tent  to  waive  the  contested  privilege  till  his  return  to 
Spain. '•^ 

Another  anecdote  of  Alva  had  left  a  still  more  un- 
favorable impression  of  his  character.  He  had  accom- 
panied Charles  on  his  memorable  visit  to  Ghent,  on 
occasion  of  its  rebellion.  The  emperor  asked  the 
duke's  counsel  as  to  the  manner  in  which  he  should 
deal  with  his  refractory  capital.  Alva  instantly  an- 
swered, ''Raze  it  to  the  ground!"  Charles,  without 
replying,  took  the  duke  with  him  to  the  battlements 
of  the  castle ;  and,  as  their  eyes  wandered  over  the 
beautiful  city  spread  out  far  and  wide  below,  the  em- 
peror asked  him,  with  a  pun  on  the  French  name  of 
Ghent  {Gand),  how  many  Spanish  hides  it  would  take 
to  make  such  a  glove  (^gant).  Alva,  who  saw  his  mas- 
ter's displeasure,  received  the  rebuke  in  silence.  The 
story,  whether  true  or  not,  was  current  among  the 
people  of  Flanders,  on  whom  it  produced  its  effect.'" 

Alva  was  now  sixty  years  old.  It  was  not  likely  that 
age  had  softened  the  asperity  of  his  nature.  He  had, 
as  might  be  expected,  ever  shown  himself  the  uncom- 
promising enemy  of  the  party  of  reform  in  the  Low 
Countries.  He  had  opposed  the  concession  made  to 
the  nation  by  the  recall  of  Granvelle.  The  only  con- 
cessions he  recommended  to  Philip  were  in  order  to 
lull  the  suspicions  of  the  great  lords  till  he  could  bring 
them  to  a  bloody  reckoning  for  their  misdeeds. '*s     The 

43  Vandervynckt,  Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  p.  207. 

*♦  "  Seu  vera  sen  ficta,  facile  Gandavensibus  credita,  ab  iisque  in 
reliquiim  Belgium  cum  Albani  odio  propagata."  Strada,  De  Bello 
Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  368. 

4S  See  his  remarkable  letter  to  the  king,  of  October  21st,  1563 : 
"A  los  que  destos  merecen,  quftenles  las  cave9as,  hasta  poderlo 


POLICY  OF  THE  DUKE. 


157 


general  drift  of  his  policy  was  perfectly  understood  in 
the  Netherlands,  and  the  duchess  had  not  exaggerated 
when  she  dwelt  on  the  detestation  in  which  he  was  held 
by  the  people. 

His  course  on  his  arrival  was  not  such  as  to  diminish 
the  fears  of  the  nation.  His  first  act  was  to  substitute 
in  the  great  towns  his  own  troops,  men  who  knew  no 
law  but  the  will  of  their  chief,  for  the  Walloon  garrisons, 
who  might  naturally  have  some  sympathy  with  their 
countrymen.  His  next  was  to  construct  fortresses, 
under  the  direction  of  one  of  the  ablest  engineers  in 
Europe.  The  hour  had  come  when,  in  the  language 
of  the  prince  of  Orange,  his  countrymen  were  to  be 
bridled  by  the  Spaniard. 

The  conduct  of  Alva's  soldiers  underwent  an  omi- 
nous change.  Instead  of  the  discipline  observed  on 
the  march,  they  now  indulged  in  the  most  reckless 
license.  "One  hears  everywhere,"  writes  a  Fleming 
of  the  time,  "of  the  oppressions  of  the  Spaniards. 
Confiscation  is  going  on  to  the  right  and  left.  If  a 
man  has  any  thing  to  lose,  they  set  him  down  at  once 
as  a  heretic."^*  If  the  writer  may  be  thought  to  have 
borrowed    something   from   his   fears,"*'  it   cannot   be 

hace  dissimular  con  ellos."     Papiers  d'6tat  de  Granvelle,  torn.  vii. 

P-  233- 

46  "  Les  Espaignols  font  les  plus  grandes  foulles  qu'on  ne  s^auroit 
escryre;  ils  confisquent  tout,  \  tort,  k  droit,  disant  que  touts  sont  here- 
liques,  qui  ont  du  bien,  et  ont  \  perdre." — The  indignant  writer  does 
not  omit  to  mention  the  "  two  thousand"  strumpets  wh©  came  in  the 
dulce's  train:  "so,"  he  adds,  "with  what  we  have  already,  there  will 
be  no  lack  of  this  sort  of  wares  in  the  country."  Lettre  de  Jean  de 
Homes,  August  25th,  1567,  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i. 
P-  565- 

47  Clough,  Sir  Thomas   Gresham's   agent,  who  was   in   the    Low 
Philip.— Vol.  II.  14 


158      ALVA   SENT  TO    THE  NETHERLANDS. 

doubted  that  the  panic  was  general  in  the  country. 
Men  emigrated  by  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands, 
carrying  with  them  to  other  lands  the  arts  and  manu- 
factures which  had  so  long  been  the  boast  and  the 
source  of  prosperity  of  the  Netherlands."^  Those  who 
remained  were  filled  with  a  dismal  apprehension, — a 
boding  of  coming  evil,  as  they  beheld  the  heavens 
darkening  around  them  and  the  signs  of  the  tempest 
at  hand. 

A  still  deeper  gloom  lay  upon  Brussels,  once  the 
gayest  city  in  the  Netherlands, — now  the  residence  of 
Alva.  All  business  was  suspended.  Places  of  public 
resort  were  unfrequented.  The  streets  were  silent  and 
deserted.  Several  of  the  nobles  and  wealthier  citizens 
had  gone  to  their  estates  in  the  country,  to  watch  there 
the  aspect  of  events.*'  Most  of  the  courtiers  who  re- 
Countries  at  this  time,  mentions  the  license  of  the  Spaniards.  It  is 
but  just  to  add  that  he  says  the  government  took  prompt  measures  to 
repress  it,  by  ordering  some  of  the  principal  offenders  to  the  gibbet. 
Burgon,  Life  of  Gresham,  vol.  ii.  pp.  229,  230. 

48  The  duchess,  in  a  letter  to  Philip,  September  8th,  1567,  says  that 
a  hundred  thousand  people  fled  the  country  on  the  coming  of  Alva ! 
(Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  tom.  i.  p.  357.)  If  this  be  thought  a  round 
exaggeration,  dictated  by  policy  or  by  fear,  still  there  are  positive 
proofs  that  the  emigration  at  this  period  was  excessive.  Thus,  by  a 
return  made  of  the  population  of  London  and  its  suburbs,  this  very 
year  of  1567,  it  appears  that  the  number  of  Flemings  was  as  large  as 
that  of  all  other  foreigners  put  together.  See  Bulletins  de  I'Academie 
Royale  de  Bruxelles,  tom.  xiv.  p.  127. 

49  Thus  Jean  de  Homes,  Baron  de  Boxtel,  writes  to  the  prince  of 
Orange:  "J  ay  prins  une  resolution  pour  mon  faict  et  est  que  je  fay 
tout  effort  de  scavoir  si  Ton  poulrast  estre  seurement  en  sa  maison:  si 
ainsy  est,  me  rctireray  en  une  des  miennes  le  plus  abstractement  que 
possible  sera;  sinon,  regardcray  de  chercher  (luekiue  residence  en 
desoubs  ung  aultre  Prince."  Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau, 
tom.  ill.  p.  125. 


POLICY  OF  THE  DUKE. 


159 


mained — the  gilded  insects  that  loved  the  sunshine — 
had  left  the  regent's  palace  and  gone  to  pay  their 
homage  to  her  rival  at  Culemborg  House.  There 
every  thing  went  merrily  as  in  the  gayest  time  of  Brus- 
sels. For  the  duke  strove,  by  brilliant  entertainments 
and  festivities,  to  amuse  the  nobles  and  dissipate  the 
gloom  of  the  capital. s" 

In  all  this  Alva  had  a  deeper  motive  than  met  the 
public  eye.  He  was  carrying  out  the  policy  which  he 
had  recommended  to  Philip.  By  courteous  and  con- 
ciliatory manners  he  hoped  to  draw  around  him  the 
great  nobles,  especially  such  as  had  been  at  all  mixed 
up  with  the  late  revolutionary  movements.  Of  these, 
Egmont  was  still  at  Brussels,  but  Ploorne  had  with- 
drawn to  his  estates  at  Weert.^'  Hoogstraten  was  in 
Germany  with  the  prince  of  Orange.  As  to  the  latter, 
Alva,  as  he  wrote  to  the  king,  could  not  flatter  himself 
with  the  hope  of  his  return. 5^ 

The  duke  and  his  son  Ferdinand  both  wrote  to 
Count  Hoorne  in  the  most  friendly  terms,  inviting 
him  to  come  to  Brussels.^s  But  this  distrustful  noble- 
man still  kept  aloof.  Alva,  in  a  conversation  with  the 
count's  secretary,  expressed^the  warmest  solicitude  for 
the  health  of  his  master.  He  had  always  been  his 
friend,  he  said,  and  had  seen  with  infinite  regret  that 

50  Goethe,  in  his  noble  tragedy  of  "  Egmont,"  seems  to  have  bor- 
rowed a  hint  from  Shakspeare's  "blanket  of  the  dark,"  to  depict  the 
gloom  of  Brussels, — where  he  speaks  of  the  heavens  as  wrapt  in  a 
dark  pall  from  the  fatal  hour  when  the  duke  entered  the  city.  Act  iv. 
Scene  i. 

5'  Vera  y  Figueroa,  Vida  de  Alva,  p.  89. 

52  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  578. 

53  Ibid.,  p.  563. 


l6o      ALVA   SEA^T  TO   THE  NETHERLANDS. 

the  count's  services  were  no  better  appreciated  by  the 
king. 54  But  Philip  was  a  good  prince,  and,  if  slow  to 
recompense,  the  count  would  find  him  not  ungrateful. 
Could  the  duke  but  see  the  count,  he  had  that  to  say 
which  would  content  him.  He  would  find  he  was  not 
forgotten  by  his  friends. ^^  This  last  assurance  had  a 
terrible  significance.  Hoorne  yielded  at  length  to  an 
invitation  couched  in  terms  so  flattering.  With  Hoog- 
straten,  Alva  was  not  so  fortunate.  His  good  genius, 
or  the  counsel  of  Orange,  saved  him  from  the  snare, 
and  kept  him  in  Germany,  s® 

Having  nothing  further  to  gain  by  delay,  Alva  de- 
termined to  proceed  at  once  to  the  execution  of  his 
scheme.  On  the  ninth  of  September  the  council  of 
state  was  summoned  to  meet  at  Culemborg  House. 
Egmont  and  Hoorne  were  present ;  and  two  or  three 
of  the  officers,  among  them  Paciotti,  the  engineer, 
were  invited  to  discuss  a  plan  of  fortification  for  some 
of  the  Flemish  cities.  In  the  mean  time,  strong  guards 
had  been  posted  at  all  the  avenues  of  the  house,  and 
cavalry  drawn  together  from  the  country  and  estab- 
lished in  the  suburbs. 

The  duke  prolonged  the  meeting  until  information 

54  "  Qu'il  lui  avail  peine  infiniment  que  le  Roi  n'eut  tenu  compte 
de  monseigneur  at  de  ses  services,  comma  il  la  meritait."  Corres- 
po:idance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  563. 

55  "  Que  s'il  voyait  M.  de  Homes,  il  lui  dirait  des  choses  qui  le 
satisferaient,  at  par  lesquelles  celui-ci  connaitrait  qu'il  n'avait  pas 
^te  oublie  de  ses  amis."     Ibid.,  p.  564. 

56  According  to  Strada,  Hoogstraten  actually  set  out  to  return  to 
Brussels,  but,  detained  by  illness  or  some  other  cause  on  the  road, 
he  fortunately  received  tidings  of  the  fate  of  his  friends  in  season 
to  profit  by  it  and  make  his  escape.  De  Ballo  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p. 
358. 


ARREST  OF  EGMONT  AND  HOORNE.        i6r 

was  privately  communicated  to  him  of  the  arrest  of 
Backerzele,  Egmont's  secretary,  and  Van  Stralen,  the 
burgomaster  of  Antwerp.  The  former  was  a  person 
of  great  political  sagacity,  and  deep  in  the  confidence 
of  Egmontj  the  latter,  the  friend  of  Orange,  with 
whom  he  was  still  in  constant  correspondence.  The 
arrest  of  Backerzele,  who  resided  in  Brussels,  was 
made  without  difficulty,  and  possession  was  taken  of 
his  papers.  Van  Stralen  was  surrounded  by  a  body  of 
horse  as  he  was  driving  out  of  Antwerp  in  his  car- 
riage; and  both  of  the  unfortunate  gentlemen  were 
brought  prisoners  to  Culemborg  House. 

As  soon  as  these  tidings  were  conveyed  to  Alva,  he 
broke  up  the  meeting  of  the  council.  Then,  entering 
into  conversation  with  Egmont,  he  strolled  with  him 
through  the  adjoining  rooms,  in  one  of  which  was  a 
small  body  of  soldiers.  As  the  two  nobles  entered  the 
apartment,  Sancho  Davila,  the  captain  of  the  duke's 
guard,  went  up  to  Egmont,  and  in  the  king's  name 
demanded  his  sword,  telling  him  at  the  same  time  he 
was  his  prisoner.  5'  The  count,  astounded  by  the  pro- 
ceeding, and  seeing  himself  surrounded  by  soldiers, 
made  no  attempt  at  resistance,  but  calmly,  and  with 
much  dignity  in  his  manner,  gave  up  his  sword,  saying, 
at  the  same  time,  "It  has  done  the  king  service  more 

S7  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  359. — Ossorio,  Albas  Vila, 
torn.  ii.  p.  248. — Also  the  memoirs  of  that  "  Thunderbolt  of  War,"  as 
his  biographer  styles  him,  Sancho  Davila  himself.  Hechos  de  Sancho 
Davila,  p.  29. — A  report,  sufficiently  meagre,  of  the  affair,  was  sent 
by  Alva  to  the  king.  In  this  no  mention  is  made  of  his  having  accom- 
panied Egmont  when  he  left  the  room  where  they  had  been  conferring 
together.  See  Documeutos  ineditos,  torn.  ii.  p.  418. 
14* 


1 62      ALVA   SENT  TO   THE   A^E  THE  ELANDS. 

than  once. "5*  And  well  might  he  say  so;  for  with 
that  sword  he  had  won  the  fields  of  Gravelines  and  St. 
Quentin.59 

Hoorne  fell  into  a  similar  ambuscade,  in  another 
part  of  the  palace,  whither  he  was  drawn  while  con- 
versing with  the  duke's  son,  Ferdinand  de  Toledo, 
who,  according  to  his  father's  account,  had  the  whole 
merit  of  arranging  this  little  drama.^  Neither  did  the 
admiral  make  any  resistance,  but,  on  learning  Egmont's 
fate,  yielded  himself  up,  saying  "he  had  no  right  to 
expect  to  fare  better  than  his  friend."*' 

It  now  became  a  question  as  to  the  disposal  of  the 
prisoners.  Culemborg  House  was  clearly  no  fitting 
place  for  their  confinement.  Alva  caused  several 
castles  in  the  neighborhood  of  Brussels  to  be  exam- 
ined, but  they  were  judged  insecure.  He  finally  de- 
cided on  Ghent.  The  strong  fortress  of  that  city  was 
held  by  one  of  Egmont's  own  partisans ;  but  an  order 

s8  "  Et  tamen  hoc  ferro  sasp^  ego  Regis  causam  non  infeliciter 
defendi."     Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  359. 

S9  Clough,  Sir  Tliomas  Gresliam's  correspondent,  in  a  letter  from 
Brussels,  of  the  same  date  with  the  arrest  of  Egmont,  gives  an  account 
of  his  bearing  on  the  occasion,  which  differs  somewhat  from  that  in 
the  text ;  not  more,  however,  than  the  popular  rumors  of  any  strange 
event  of  recent  occurrence  are  apt  to  differ :  "And  as  touching  the 
County  of  Egniond,  he  was  (as  the  saying  ys)  apprehendyd  by  the 
Duke,  and  comyttyd  to  the  offysers :  whereuppon,  when  the  capytane 
that  had  charge  [of  him]  demandyd  hys  weapon,  he  was  in  a  grett 
rage;  and  tooke  his  sword  from  hys  syde,  and  cast  it  to  the  grounde." 
Burgon,  Life  of  Gresham,  vol.  ii.  p.  234. 

5o  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  574. 

*'  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  tom.  i.  p.  359. — Meteren,  Hist,  des 
Pays-Bas,  fol.  54. — Hcchos  de  Sancho  Davila,  p.  29. — Ossorio,  Albas 
Vita,  tom.  ii.  p.  248. — Vandervynckt,  Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii. 
p.  223. — Documcntos  indditos,  tom.  iv.  p.  418. 


ARREST  OF  EGMONT  AND  IIOORNE.         163 

was  obtained  from  the  count  requiring  him  to  deliver 
up  the  keys  into  the  hands  of  Ulloa,  one  of  Alva's 
most  trusted  captains,  who,  at  the  head  of  a  corps  of 
Spanish  veterans,  marched  to  Ghent  and  relieved  the 
Walloon  garrison  of  their  charge.  Ulloa  gave  proof 
of  his  vigilance,  immediately  on  his  arrival,  by  seizing 
a  heavy  wagon  loaded  with  valuables  belonging  to  Eg- 
mont,  as  it  was  leaving  the  castle  gate.*^ 

Having  completed  these  arrangements,  the  duke  lost 
no  time  in  sending  the  two  lords,  under  a  strong  mili- 
tary escort,  to  Ghent.  Two  companies  of  mounted 
arquebusiers  rode  in  the  front.  A  regiment  of  Spanish 
infantry,  which  formed  the  centre',  guarded  the  prison 
ers ;  one  of  whom,  Egmont,  was  borne  in  a  litter 
carried  by  mules,  while  Hoorne  was  in  his  own  car- 
riage. The  rear  was  brought  up  by  three  companies 
of  light  horse. 

Under  this  strong  guard  the  unfortunate  nobles  were 
conducted  through  the  province  where  Egmont  had 
lately  ruled  "with  an  authority,"  writes  Alva's  secre- 
tary, "greater  even  than  that  of  the  king."^  But  no 
attempt  was  made  at  a  rescue ;  and  as  the  procession 
entered  the  gates  of  Ghent,  where  Egmont's  popularity 
was  equal  to  his  power,  the  people  gazed  in  stupefied 
silence  on  the  stern  array  that  was  conducting  their 
lord  to  the  place  of  his  confinement. *•• 

The  arrest  of  Egmont  and  Hoorne  was  known,  in  a 
iiew  hours  after  it  took  place,  to  every  inhabitant  of 

**  Vandervynckt,  Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  tom.  ii.  p.  226. 

63  "  Toutes  ces  mesures  etaient  necessaires,  vu  la  grande  autorite 
du  comte  d' Egmont  en  ces  pays,  qui  ne  connaissaient  d'autre  roi  que 
lui."     Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  tom.  i.  p.  582. 

^  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. — Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  54. 


1 64      ALVA   SENT  TO   THE  NETHERLANDS. 

Brussels ;  and  the  tidings  soon  spread  to  the  farthest 
parts  of  the  country.  "The  imprisonment  of  the 
lords,"  writes  Alva  to  the  king,  "has  caused  no  disturb- 
ance. The  tranquillity  is  such  that  your  majesty  would 
hardly  credit  it."^^  True;  but  the  tranquillity  was 
that  of  a  man  stunned  by  a  heavy  blow.  If  murmurs 
were  not  loud,  however,  they  were  deep.  Men  mourned 
over  the  credulity  of  the  two  counts,  who  had  so  blindly 
fallen  into  the  snare,  and  congratulated  one  another  on 
the  forecast  of  the  prince  of  Orange,  who  might  one 
day  have  the  power  to  avenge  them.**  The  event  gave 
a  new  spur  to  emigration.  In  the  space  of  a  few  weeks 
no  less  than  twenty  thousand  persons  are  said  to  have 
fled  the  country. ^^  And  the  exiles  were  not  altogether 
drawn  from  the  humbler  ranks;  for  no  one,  however 
high,  could  feel  secure  when  he  saw  the  blow  aimed  at 
men  like  Egmont  and  Hoorne,  the  former  of  whom, 
if  he  had  given  some  cause  of  distrust,  had  long  since 
made  his  peace  with  the  government. 

Count  Mansfeldt  made  haste  to  send  his  son  out  of 
the  country,  lest  the  sympathy  he  had  once  shown  for 
the  confederates,  notwithstanding  his  recent  change  of 
opinion,  might  draw  on  him  the  vengeance  of  Alva. 
The  old  count,  whose  own  loyalty  could  not  be  im- 
peached, boldly  complained  of  the  arrest  of  the  lords 
as  an  infringement  on  the  rights  of  the  Toison  cf  Or, 
which  body  alone  had  cognizance  of  the  causes  that 
concerned  their  order,  intimating,  at  the  same  time, 

*s  "  L'emprisonnement  des  deux  comtes  ne  donne  lieu  k  aucune 
rumeur ;  au  contraire,  la  tranquillite  est  si  grande,  que  le  Roi  ne  le 
pourrait  croire."     Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  575. 

66  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  359. 

67  Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  vol.  i.  p.  260, 


ARREST  OF  EGMONT  AND    HOORNE.      165 

his  intention  to  summon  a  meeting  of  the  members. 
But  he  was  silenced  by  Alva,  who  plainly  told  him  that 
if  the  chevaliers  of  the  order  did  meet,  and  said  so 
much  as  the  credo,  he  would  bring  them  to  a  heavy 
reckoning  for  it.  "As  to  the  rights  of  the  Toison,  his 
majesty  has  pronounced  on  them,"  said  the  duke,  "and 
nothing  remains  for  you  but  to  submit.'"^ 

The  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  the  two  highest 
nobles  in  the  land,  members  of  the  council  of  state, 
and  that  without  any  communication  with  her,  was  an 
affront  to  the  regent  which  she  could  not  brook.  It 
was  in  vain  that  Alva  excused  it  by  saying  it  had  been 
done  by  the  order  of  the  king,  who  wished  to  spare 
his  sister  the  unpopularity  which  must  attach  to  such  a 
proceeding.  Margaret  made  no  reply.  She  did  not 
complain.  She  was  too  deeply  wounded  to  complain. 
But  she  wrote  to  Philip,  asking  him  to  consider 
"whether  it  could  be  advantageous  to  him,  or  deco- 
rous for  her,  whom  he  did  not  disdain  to  call  his 
sister,  that  she  should  remain  longer  in  a  place  of 
which  the  authority  was  so  much  abridged,  or  rather 
annihilated."*'  She  sent  her  secretary,  Machiavelli, 
with  her  despatches,  requesting  an  immediate  reply 
from  Philip,  and  adding  that  if  it  were  delayed  she 

*8  "  Que,  s'il  apprenait  que  quelques-uns  en  fissent,  encore  meme 
que  ce  fut  pour  dire  le  credo,  il  les  chatierait ;  que,  quant  aux  privileges 
de  rOrdre,  le  Roi,  apres  un  mur  examen  de  ceux-ci,  avait  prononce, 
et  qu'on  devait  se  soumettre."    Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn. 

i.  p.  578. 

^  "  Ade6  contracto  ac  penS  nullo  cum  imperio  moderari,  an  utile 
Regi,  an  decorum  ei  quam  Rex  sororem  appellare  non  indignatur, 
illius  meditationi  relinquere."  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p. 
360. 


1 66      ALVA   SENT  TO   THE  NETHERLANDS. 

should  take  silence  for  assent,  and  forthwith  leave  the 
country. 

The  duke  of  Alva  was  entirely  resigned  to  the  pro- 
posed departure  of  Margaret.  However  slight  the 
restraint  her  presence  might  impose  on  his  conduct, 
it  exacted  more  deference  than  was  convenient,  and 
compelled  him  to  consult  appearances.  Now  that  he 
had  shown  his  hand,  he  was  willing  to  play  it  out 
boldly  to  the  end.  His  first  step  after  the  arrest  of 
the  lords  was  to  organize  that  memorable  tribunal  for 
inquiring  into  the  troubles  of  the  country,  which  has 
no  parallel  in  history  save  in  the  revolutionary  tribunal 
of  the  French  republic.  The  duke  did  not  shrink 
from  assuming  the  sole  responsibility  of  his  measures. 
He  said,  "it  was  better  for  the  king  to  postpone  his 
visit  to  the  Netherlands,  so  that  his  ministers  might 
bear  alone  the  odium  of  these  rigorous  acts.  When 
these  had  been  performed,  he  might  come  like  a 
gracious  prince,  dispensing  promises  and  pardon."  7° 

This  admirable  coolness  must  be  referred  in  part  to 
Alva's  consciousness  that  his  policy  would  receive  the 
unqualified  sanction  of  his  master.  Indeed,  his  corre- 
spondence shows  that  all  he  had  done  in  the  Low  Coun- 
tries was  in  accordance  with  a  plan  preconcerted  with 
Philip.  The  arrest  of  the  Flemish  lords,  accordingly, 
gave  entire  satisfaction  at  the  court  of  Madrid,  where 
it  was  looked  on  as  the  first  great  step  in  the  measures 
of  redress.     It  gave  equal  contentment  to  the  court  of 

7°  "  II  vaut  mieux  que  le  Ro!  attende,  pour  venir,  que  tous  les  actes 
de  rigueur  aient  ^td  Ciits ;  il  entrcra  alors  dans  le  pays  comnie  prince 
benin  et  clement,  pardonnant,  et  accordant  des  faveurs  k  ceux  qui 
Tauront  meritd."     Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  577. 


ARREST  OF  EG  MONT  AND   HOORNE.       167 

Rome,  where  it  was  believed  that  the  root  of  heresy 
was  to  be  reached  only  by  the  axe  of  the  executioner. 
Yet  there  was  one  person  at  that  court  of  more  penetra- 
tion than  those  around  him,  the  old  statesman  Gran- 
velle,  who,  when  informed  of  the  arrest  of  Egmont 
and  Hoorne,  inquired  if  the  duke  had  "also  drawn 
into  his  net  the  Silent  one,^^ — as  the  prince  of  Orange 
was  popularly  called.  On  being  answered  in  the  nega- 
tive, "Then,"  said  the  cardinal,  "if  he  has  not  caught 
him,  he  has  caught  nothing. ' '  7' 

7'  "  An  captus  quoque  fuisset  Tacitumus  (sic  Orangium  nominabat), 
atque  eo  negante  dixisse  fertur,  Uno  illo  retibus  non  incluso,  nihil  ab 
Duce  Albano  captum."     Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p,  360. 


CHAPTER    II. 

CRUEL    POLICY   OF   ALVA. 

The  Council  of  Blood. — Its  Organization. — General  Prosecutions. — 
Civil  War  in  France. — Departure  of  Margaret. — Her  Administra- 
tion reviewed. 

1567- 

"Thank  God,"  writes  the  duke  of  Alva  to  his 
sovereign,  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  October,  "all  is 
tranquil  in  the  Low  Countries."'  It  was  the  same 
sentiment  he  had  uttered  a  few  weeks  before.  All  was 
indeed  tranquil.  Silence  reigned  throughout  the  land. 
Yet  it  might  have  spoken  more  eloquently  to  the  heart 
than  the  murmurs  of  discontent  or  the  loudest  tumult 
of  insurrection.  "They  say  many  are  leaving  the 
country,"  he  writes  in  another  despatch.  "It  is 
hardly  worth  while  to  arrest  them.  The  repose  of  the 
nation  is  not  to  be  brought  about  by  cutting  off  the 
heads  of  those  who  are  led  astray  by  others." * 

Yet  in  less  than  a  week  after  this  we  find  a  royal  or- 
dinance declaring  that,  "whereas  his  majesty  is  averse 
to  use  rigor  towards  those  who  have  taken  part  in  the 
late  rebellion,  and  would  rather  deal  with  them  in  all 

'  "Grace  h.  Dieu,  tout  est  parfaitement  tranquille  aux  Pays-Bas." 
Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  589. 

'  "  Le  repos  aux  Pays-Bas  ne  consiste  pas  k  faire  couper  la  tete 
k  des  homines  qui  se  sent  laisse  persuader  par  d'autres."  Ibid.,  p. 
576.  , 

(16S) 


THE    COUNCIL    OF  BLOOD.  169 

gentleness  and  mercy,^  it  is  forbidden  to  any  one  to 
leave  the  land,  or  to  send  off  his  effects,  without  ob- 
taining a  license  from  the  authorities,  under  pain  of 
being  regarded  as  having  taken  part  in  the  late  trou- 
bles, and  of  being  dealt  with  accordingly.  All  masters 
and  owners  of  vessels  who  shall  aid  such  persons  in 
their  flight  shall  incur  the  same  penalties."*  The  pen- 
alties denounced  in  this  spirit  of  "gentleness  and 
mercy"  were  death  and  confiscation  of  property. 

That  the  law  was  not  a  dead  letter  was  soon  shown 
by  the  arrest  of  ten  of  the  principal  merchants  of 
Tournay  as  they  were  preparing  to  fly  to  foreign  parts, 
and  by  the  immediate  confiscation  of  their  esta^t^s?*^ 
Yet  Alva  v/ould  have  persuaded  the  world  that  he,  as 
well  as  his  master,  was  influenced  only  by  sentiments 
of  humanity.  To  the  Spanish  ambassador  at  Rome  he 
wrote,  soon  after  the  seizure  of  the  Flemish  lords,  ''I 
might  have  arrested  more ;  but  the  king  is  averse  to 
shedding  the  blood  of  his  people.  I  have  the  same 
disposition  myself.®  I  am  pained  to  the  bottom  of  my 
soul  by  the  necessity  of  the  measure." 

3  "  Os  habem  os  hecho  entender  que  nuestra  intencion  era  de  no  usar 
de  rigor  contra  nuestros  subegetos  que  durante  las  revueltas  pasadas 
pudiesenhaberofendido  contra  Nos,  sino  de  toda  dulzura  y  clernencia 
seg^un  nuestra  incUnaclon  natural."  Documentos  ined.,  torn.  iv.  p.  440. 

4  The  ordinance,  dated  September  i8th,  1567,  copied  from  the 
Archives  of  Simancas,  is  to  be  found  in  the  Documentos  ineditos, 
torn.  iv.  p.  439,  et  seq. 

5  "  Statimque  mercatores  decern  primarios  Tornacenses  h  portu 
Flissingano  fugam  in  Britanniam  adornantes  capi,  ac  bonis  exutos 
custodiri  jubet."     Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  tom.  i.  p.  361. 

*  "  Mais  I'intention  de  S.  M.  n'est  pas  de  verser  le  sang  de  ses  sujets, 
et  moi,  de  mon  naturel,  je  ne  I'aime  pas  davantage."  Correspondance 
de  Philippe  II.,  tom.  i.  p.  576. 

Philip. — Vol.  II. — H  15 


ryo 


CRUEL    POLICY  OF  ALVA. 


But  now  that  the  great  nobles  had  come  into  the 
snare,  it  was  hardly  necessary  to  keep  up  the  affecta- 
tion of  lenity ;  and  it  was  not  long  before  he  threw 
away  the  mask  altogether.  The  arm  of  justice — of 
vengeance — was  openly  raised  to  strike  down  all  who 
had  offended  by  taking  part  in  the  late  disturbances. 

The  existing  tribunals  were  not  considered  as  com- 
petent to  this  work.  The  regular  forms  of  procedure 
were  too  dilatory,  and  the  judges  themselves  would 
hardly  be  found  subservient  enough  to  the  will  of  Alva. 
He  created,  therefore,  a  new  tribunal,  with  extraor- 
dinary powers,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  investigating 
the  causes  of  the  late  disorders  and  for  bringing  the 
authors  to  punishment.  It  was  called  originally  the 
"Council  of  his  Excellency."  The  name  was  soon 
changed  for  that  of  the  "Council  of  Tumults."  But 
the  tribunal  is  better  known  in  history  by  the  terrible 
name  it  received  from  the  people,  of  the  "  Council  of 
Bloody 

It  was  composed  of  twelve  judges,  "  the  most  learned, 
upright  men,  and  of  the  purest  lives," — if  we  may  take 
the  duke's  word  for  it, — that  were  to  be  found  in  the 
country.^  Among  them  were  Noircarmes  and  Barlai- 
mont,  both  members  of  the  council  of  state.  The 
latter  was  a  proud  noble,  of  one  of  the  most  ancient 
families  in  the  land,  inflexible  in  his  character,  and 
stanch  in  his  devotion  to  the  crown.     Besides  these 

7  "  Novum  igitur  consessum  judicum  instituit,  exteris  in  eum 
plerisque  adscitis;  qucm  Turbarum  ille;  plebes,  Sanguinis  appel- 
labat  Senatum."  Reidani  Annalcs  (Lugdunum  Batavorum,  1633), 
P-S- 

8  "  Les  plus  savants  et  les  plus  int^gres  du  pays,  et  de  la  meilleure 
vie."     Correspondance  de  Pliilippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  576. 


THE   COUNCIL    OF  BLOOD. 


171 


there  were  the  presidents  of  the  councils  of  Artois  and 
Flanders,  the  chancellor  of  Gueldres,  and  several  jurists 
of  repute  in  the  country.  But  the  persons  of  most  con- 
sideration in  the  body  were  two  lawyers  who  had  come 
in  the  duke's  train  from  Castile.  One  of  these,  the 
doctor  Del  Rio,  though  born  in  Bruges,  was  of  Spanish 
extraction.  His  most  prominent  trait  seems  to  have 
been  unlimited  subserviency  to  the  will  of  his  employer.' 
The  other,  Juan  de  Vargas,  was  to  play  the  most  con- 
spicuous part  in  the  bloody  drama  that  followed.  He 
was  a  Spaniard,  and  had  held  a  place  in  the  Council  of 
the  Indies.  His  character  was  infamous ;  and  he  was 
said  to  have  defrauded  an  orphan  ward  of  her  patri- 
mony.'" When  he  left  Spain,  two  criminal  prosecutions 
are  reported  to  have  been  hanging  over  him.  This 
only  made  him  the  more  dependent  on  Alva's  protec- 
tion. He  was  a  man  of  great  energy  of  character,  un- 
wearied in  application  to  business,  unscrupulous  in  the 
service  of  his  employer,  ready  at  any  price  to  sacrifice 
to  his  own  interest  not  only  every  generous  impulse, 
but  the  common  feelings  of  humanity.  Such,  at  least, 
are  the  dark  colors  in  which  he  is  portrayed  by  the 
writers  of  a  nation  which  held  him  in  detestation.  Yet 
his  very  vices  made  him  so  convenient  to  the  duke  that 
the  latter  soon  bestowed  on  him  more  of  his  confidence 
than  on  any  other  of  his  followers ; "  and  in  his  corre- 
spondence with  Philip  we  perpetually  find  him  com- 

9  Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  300. 

I"  Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  54. 

"  Viglius,  who  had  not  yet  seen  the  man,  thus  mentions  him  in  a 
letter  to  his  friend  Hopper:  "  Imperium  ac  rigorem  metuunt  cujusdam 
Vergasi,  qui  apud  eum  muhum  posse,  et  nescio  quid  aliud,  dicitur." 
Epist.  ad  Hopperum,  p.  451. 


172 


CRUEL   POLICY  OF  ALVA. 


mending  Vargas  to  the  monarch's  favor,  and  contrast- 
ing his  "  activity,  altogether  juvenile,"  with  the  apathy 
of  others  of  the  council."  As  Vargas  was  unacquainted 
with  Flemish,  the  proceedings  of  the  court  were  con- 
ducted, for  his  benefit,  in  Latin. '^  Yet  he  was  such  a 
bungler  even  in  this  language  that  his  blunders  furnished 
infinite  merriment  to  the  people  of  Flanders,  who  took 
some  revenge  for  their  wrongs  in  the  ridicule  of  their 

/ppl^ressor. 
'  As  the  new  court  had  cognizance  of  all  cases,  civil 
as  well  as  criminal,  that  grew  out  of  the  late  disorders, 
the  amount  of  business  soon  pressed  on  them  so  heavily 
that  it  was  found  expedient  to  distribute  it  into  several 
departments  among  the  different  members.  Two  of 
the  body  had  especial  charge  of  the  processes  of  the 
prince  of  Orange,  his  brother  Louis,  Hoogstraten, 
Culemborg,  and  the  rest  of  William's  noble  compan- 
ions in  exile.  To  Vargas  and  Del  Rio  was  intrusted 
the  trial  of  Counts  Egmont  and  Hoorne.  And  two 
others,  Blasere  and  Hessels,  had  the  most  burdensome 
and  imiDortant  charge  of  all  such  causes  as  came  from 
the  provinces.''' 

The  latter  of  these  two  worthies  was  destined  to 
occupy  a  place  second  only  to  that  of  Vargas  on  the 
bloody  roll  of  persecution.  He  was  a  native  of  Ghent, 
of  sufficient  eminence  in  his  profession  to  fill  the  office 
of  attorney-general  of  his  province  under  Charles  the 

"  "Une  activite  toute  juvenile."  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II., 
torn.  i.  p.  583. 

»3  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 

H  Bulletins  de  I'Academie  Royale  de  Belgique,  torn.  xvi.  par.  ii. 
p.  S8. 


COUNCIL    OF  BLOOD. 


173 


Fifth.  In  that  capacity  he  enforced  the  edicts  with  so 
much  rigor  as  to  make  himself  odious  to  his  country- 
men. In  the  new  career  now  opened  to  him  he  found 
a  still  wider  field  for  his  mischievous  talents,  and  he 
entered  on  the  duties  of  his  office  with  such  hearty 
zeal  as  soon  roused  general  indignation  in  the  people, 
who  at  a  later  day  took  terrible  vengeance  on  their 
oppressor,  's 

As  soon  as  the  Council  of  Troubles  was  organized, 
commissioners  were  despatched  into  the  provinces  to 
hunt  out  the  suspected  parties.  All  who  had  officiated 
as  preachers,  or  had  harbored  or  aided  them,  who  had 
joined  the  consistories,  who  had  assisted  in  defacing 
or  destroying  the  Catholic  churches  or  in  building  the 
Protestant,  who  had  subscribed  the  Compromise,  or 
who,  in  short,  had  taken  an  active  part  in  the  late  dis- 
orders, were  to  be  arrested  as  guilty  of  treason.  In 
the  hunt  after  victims,  informations  were  invited  from 
every  source.  Wives  were  encouraged  to  depose  against 
husbands,  children  against  parents.  The  prisons  were 
soon  full  to  overflowing,  and  the  provincial  and  the 
local  magistrates  were  busy  in  filing  informations  of 
the  different  cases,  which  were  forwarded  to  the  court 
at  Brussels.  When  deemed  of  sufficient  importance, 
the  further  examination  of  a  case  was  reserved  for  the 
council  itself.     But  for  the  most  part  the  local  authori- 

'S  Vandervynckt,  Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  p.  242. — Hessels 
was  married  to  a  niece  of  Viglius.  According  to  the  old  councillor, 
she  was  on  bad  terms  with  her  husband,  because  he  had  not  kept  his 
promise  of  resigning  the  office  of  attorney-general,  in  which  he  made 
himself  so  unpopular  in  Flanders.  (Epist.  ad  Hopperum,  p.  495.) 
In  the  last  chapter  of  this  Book  the  reader  will  find  some  mention  of 
the  tragic  fate  of  Hessels. 

15* 


174  CRUEL   POLICY  OF  ALVA. 

ties,  or  a  commission  sent  expressly  for  the  purpose, 
were  authorized  to  try  the  cause,  proceeding  even  to  a 
definitive  sentence,  which,  with  the  grounds  of  it,  they 
were  to  lay  before  the  Council  of  Troubles.  The  pro- 
cess was  then  revised  by  the  committee  for  the  prov- 
inces, who  submitted  the  result  of  their  examination  to 
Vargas  and  Del  Rio.  The  latter  were  alone  empowered 
to  vote  in  the  matter,  and  their  sentence,  prepared  in 
writing,  was  laid  before  the  duke,  who  reserved  to 
himself  the  right  of  a  final  decision.  This  he  did,  as 
he  wrote  to  Philip,  that  he  might  not  come  too  much 
under  the  direction  of  the  council.  "Your  majesty 
well  knows,"  he  concludes,  *'that  gentlemen  of  the 
law  are  unwilling  to  decide  any  thing  except  upon  evi- 
dence, while  measures  of  state  policy  are  not  to  be 
regulated  by  the  laws. ' '  '^ 

It  might  be  supposed  that  the  different  judges  to 
whom  the  prisoner's  case  was  thus  separately  submitted 
for  examination  would  have  afforded  an  additional 
guarantee  for  his  security.  But  quite  the  contrary:  it 
only  multiplied  the  chances  of  his  conviction.  When 
the  provincial  committee  presented  their  report  to 
Vargas  and  Del  Rio, — to  whom  a  Spanish  jurist,  audi- 
tor of  the  chancery  of  Valladolid,  named  Roda,  was 
afterwards  added, — if  it  proposed  sentence  of  death, 
these  judges  declared  it  "was  right,  and  that  there  was 
no  necessity  of  reviewing  the  process."  If,  on  the  con- 
trary, a  lower  penalty  was  recommended,  the  worthy 

•*  "  Letrados  no  sentcncian  sino  en  casos  p'robados;  y  como  V.  M. 
sabe,  los  negocios  de  Estado  son  muy  difeientcs  de  las  leyes  que  ellos 
tienen."  Bulletins  d(3 1'Acadt^mie  Royale  de  Belgique,  torn.  xvi.  par. 
ii.  p.  52,  note. 


COUNCIL    OF  BLOOD. 


75 


ministers  of  the  law  were  in  the  habit  of  returning  the 
process,  ordering  the  committee,  witli  bitter  impreca- 
tions, to  revise  it  more  carefully !  '^ 

As  confiscation  was  one  of  the  most  frequent  as  well 
as  momentous  penalties  adjudged  by  the  Council  of 
Blood,  it  necessarily  involved  a  large  number  of  civil 
actions;  for  the  estate  thus  forfeited  was  often  bur- 
dened with  heavy  claims  on  it  by  other  parties.  These 
were  all  to  be  established  before  the  council.  One 
may  readily  comprehend  how  small  was  the  chance  of 
justice  before  such  a  tribunal,  where  the  creditor  was 
one  of  the  parties  and  the  crown  the  other.  Even  if 
the  suit  was  decided  in  favor  of  the  creditor,  it  was 
usually  so  long  protracted,  and  attended  with  such 
ruinous  expense,  that  it  would  have  been  better  for 
him  never  to  have  urged  it.'^ 

The  jurisdiction  of  the  court,  within  the  limits  as- 
signed to  it,  wholly  superseded  that  of  the  great  court 
of  Mechlin,  as  well  as  of  every  other  tribunal,  provin- 
cial or  municipal,  in  the  country.  Its  decisions  were 
final.  By  the  law  of  the  land,  established  by  repeated 
royal  charters  in  the  provinces,  no  man  in  the  Nether- 
lands could  be  tried  by  any  but  a  native  judge.  But 
of  the  present  court,  one  member  was  a  native  of  Bur- 
gundy and  two  were  Spaniards. 

It  might  be  supposed  that  a  tribunal  with  such  enor- 

'7  "  En  siendo  el  aviso  de  condemnar  i.  muerte,  se  decia  que  estaba 
muy  bien  y  no  habia  mas  que  ver ;  empero,  si  el  aviso  era  de  menor 
pena,  no  se  estaba  d  lo  que  ellos  decian,  sino  tornabase  d  ver  el  pro- 
ceso,  y  decianles  sobre  ello  malas  palabras,  y  hacianles  ruin  tratami- 
ento."  Gachard  cites  the  words  of  the  official  document,  Bulletins 
de  I'Academie  Royale  de  Belgique,  torn.  xvi.  par.  ii.  p.  67. 

'8  Ibid  ,  p.  63,  et  seq. 


176  CRUEL   POLICY  OF  ALVA. 

mous  powers,  which  involved  so  gross  an  outrage  on 
the  constitutional  rights  and  long-established  usages 
of  the  nation,  would  at  least  have  been  sanctioned  by 
some  warrant  from  the  crown.  It  could  pretend  to 
nothing  of  the  kind, — ^not  even  a  written  commission 
from  the  duke  of  Alva,  the  man  who  created  it.  By 
his  voice  alone  he  gave  it  an  existence.  The  ceremony 
of  induction  into  office  was  performed  by  the  new 
member  placing  his  hands  between  those  of  the  duke 
and  swearing  to  remain  true  to  the  faith,  to  decide  in 
all  cases  according  to  his  sincere  conviction,  finally, 
to  keep  secret  all  the  doings  of  the  council  and  to 
denounce  any  one  who  disclosed  them.'^  A  tribunal 
clothed  with  such  unbounded  power,  and  conducted 
on  a  plan  so  repugnant  to  all  principles  of  justice,  fell 
nothing  short,  in  its  atrocity,  of  that  Inquisition  so 
much  dreaded  in  the  Netherlands. 

Alva,  in  order  to  be  the  better  able  to  attend  the 
council,  appointed  his  own  palace  for  the  place  of 
meeting.  At  first  the  sittings  were  held  morning  and 
afternoon,  lasting  sometimes  seven  hours  in  a  day." 
There  was  a  general  attendance  of  the  members,  the 
duke  presiding  in  person.  After  a  few  months,  as  he 
was  drawn  to  a  distance  by  more  pressing  affairs,  he 

»9  "  Qu'ils  seraient  et  demeureraient  k  jamais  bons  catholiques,  selon 
que  commandait  I'feglise  catholique  romaine;  que,  par  haine,  amour, 
pitie  ou  crainte  de  personne,  ils  ne  laisseraient  de  dire  franchement 
et  sinc^rement  leur  avis,  selon  qu'en  bonne  justice  ils  trouvaient 
convenir  et  appartenir;  qu'ils  tiendraient  secret  tout  ce  qui  se  trai- 
terait  au  conseil,  et  qu'ils  accuseraient  ceux  qui  feraient  le  contmire." 
Bulletins  de  I'Academie  Royale  de  Belgique,  torn.  xvi.  par.  ii.  p. 
S6. 

20  Ibid.,  p.  57. 


COUNCIL    OF  BLOOD. 


177 


resigned  his  place  to  Vargas.  Barlaimont  and  Noir- 
carmes,  disgusted  with  the  atrocious  character  of  the 
proceedings,  soon  absented  themselves  from  the  meet- 
ings. The  more  respectable  of  the  members  imitated 
their  example.  One  of  the  body,  a  Burgundian,  a  fol- 
lower of  Granvelle,  having  criticised  the  proceedings 
somewhat  too  freely,  had  leave  to  withdraw  to  his 
own  province ; "  till  at  length  only  three  or  four  coun- 
cillors remained, — Vargas,  Del  Rio,  Hessels  and  his 
colleague, — on  whom  the  despatch  of  the  momentous 
business  wholly  devolved.  To  some  of  the  processes 
we  find  not  more  than  three  names  subscribed.  The 
duke  was  as  indifferent  to  forms  as  he  was  to  the  rights 
of  the  nation."^ 

"  Belin,  in  a  letter  to  his  patron,  Cardinal  Granvelle,  gives  full  vent 
to  his  discontent  with  "  three  or  four  Spaniards  in  the  duke's  train,  who 
would  govern  all  in  his  name.  They  make  but  one  head  under  the 
same  hat."  He  mentions  Vargas  and  Del  Rio  in  particular.  Gran- 
velle's  reply  is  very  characteristic.  Far  from  sympathizing  with  his 
querulous  follower,  he  predicts  the  ruin  of  his  fortunes  by  this  mode 
of  proceeding.  "  A  man  wlro  would  rise  in  courts  must  do  as  he  is 
bidden,  without  question.  Far  from  taking  umbrage,  he  must  bear 
in  mind  that  injuries,  like  pills,  should  be  swallowed  without  chewing, 
that  one  may  not  taste  the  bitterness  of  them ;  ' — a  noble  maxim,  if 
the  motive  had  been  noble.  See  Levesque,  Memoires  de  Granvelle, 
torn.  ii.  pp.  91-94. 

="  The  historians  of  the  time  are  all  more  or  less  diffuse  on  the 
doings  of  the  Council  of  Troubles,  written  as  they  are  in  characters 
of  blood.  But  we  look  in  vain  for  any  account  of  the  interior  organ- 
ization of  that  tribunal,  or  of  its  mode  of  judicial  procedure.  This 
may  be  owing  to  the  natural  reluctance  which  the  actors  themselves 
felt,  in  later  times,  to  being  mixed  up  with  the  proceedings  of  a  court 
so  universally  detested.  For  the  same  reason,  as  Gachard  intimates, 
they  may  not  improbably  have  even  destroyed  some  of  the  records 
of  its  proceedings.  Fortunately,  that  zealous  and  patriotic  scholar 
has  discovered  in  the  archives  of  Simancas  sundry  letters  of  Alva  and 
H* 


178  CRUEL    POLICY  OF  ALVA. 

It  soon  became  apparent  that,  as  in  most  proscrip- 
tions, wealth  was  the  mark  at  which  persecution  was 
mainly  directed.  At  least,  if  it  did  not  actually  form 
a  ground  of  accusation,  it  greatly  enhanced  the  chances 
of  a  conviction.  The  commissioners  sent  to  the  prov- 
inces received  written  instructions  to  ascertain  the  exact 
amount  of  property  belonging  to  the  suspected  parties. 
The  expense  incident  on  the  maintenance  of  so  many 
officials,  as  well  as  of  a  large  military  force,  pressed 
heavily  on  the  government ;  and  Alva  soon  found  it 
necessary  to  ask  for  support  from  Madrid.  It  was  in 
vain  he  attempted  to  obtain  a  loan  from  the  merchants. 
"They  refuse,"  he  writes,  "to  advance  a  real  on  the 
security  of  the  confiscations,  till  they  see  how  the  game 
we  have  begun  is  likely  to  prosper  !"  ^^ 

In  another  letter  to  Philip,  dated  on  the  twenty- 
fourth  of  October,  Alva,  expressing  his  regret  at  the 
necessity  of  demanding  supplies,  says  that  the  Low 
Countries  ought  to  maintain  themselves  and  be  no  tax 
upon  Spain.  He  is  constantly  thwarted  by  the  duchess, 
and  by  the  council  of  finance,  in  his  appropriation  of 
the  confiscated  property.  Could  he  only  manage  things 
in  his  own  way,  he  would  answer  for  it  that  the  Flemish 
cities,  uncertain  and  anxious  as  to  their  fate,  would 
readily  acquiesce  in  the  fair  means  of  raising  a  revenue 

his  successor,  as  well  as  some  of  the  official  records  of  the  tribunal, 
which  in  a  great  degree  supply  the  defect.  The  result  he  has  em- 
bodied in  a  luminous  paper  prepared  for  the  Royal  Academy  of  Bel- 
gium, which  has  supplied  me  with  the  materials  for  the  preceding 
pages.  See  Bulletins  de  I'Acaddmie  Royale  des  Sciences,  des  Lettres, 
et  des  Beaux-Arts  de  Belgique,  torn.  xvi.  par.  ii.  pp.  50-78. 

"3  "  Hasta  que  vean  en  que  para  este  juego  que  se  comien9a." 
Corrcspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  598. 


GENERAL   PROSECUTIONS. 


179 


proposed  by  the  king.^  The  ambitious  general,  eager 
to  secure  the  sole  authority  to  himself,  artfully  touched 
on  the  topic  which  would  be  most  likely  to  operate  with 
his  master.  In  a  note  on  this  passage,  in  his  own  hand- 
writing, Philip  remarked  that  this  was  but  just,  but,  as 
he  feared  that  supplies  would  never  be  raised  with  the 
consent  of  the  states,  Alva  must  devise  some  expedient 
by  which  their  consent  in  the  matter  might  be  dispensed 
with,  and  communicate  it  privately  to  him.^  This 
pregnant  thought  he  soon  after  develops  more  fully  in 
a  letter  to  the  duke.°*  It  is  edifying  to  observe  the  cool 
manner  in  which  the  king  and  his  general  discuss  the 
best  means  for  filching  a  revenue  from  the  pockets  of 
the  good  people  of  the  Netherlands. 

Margaret, — whose  name  now  rarely  appears, — scan- 
dalized by  the  plan  avowed  of  wholesale  persecution, 
and  satisfied  that  blood  enough  had  been  shed  al- 
ready, would  fain  have  urged  her  brother  to  grant 
a  general  pardon.  But  to  this  the  duke  strongly  ob- 
jected. "He  would  have  every  man,"  he  wrote  to 
Philip,  "  feel  that  any  day  his  house  might  fall  about 
his  ears.^'     Thus  private  individuals  would  be  induced 

^  "  Car  rincertitude  ou  celles-ci  se  trouvent  du  sort  qu'on  leur 
reserve,  les  fera  plus  aisement  consentir  aux  nioyens  de  finances  justes 
et  honnetes  qui  seront  etablis  par  le  Roi."  Correspondance  de 
Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  590. 

»5  "  Porque  creo  yo  que,  con  la  voluntad  de  los  Estados,  no  se 
hallaran  estas,  que  es  menester  ponerlos  de  manera  que  no  sea  me- 
nester  su  voluntad  y  consentimiento  para  ello.  .  .  .  Esto  ird.  en  cifra, 
y  aun  creo  que  seria  bien  que  fuese  en  una  cartilla  &.  parte  que  desci- 
frase  el  mas  confidante."     Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 

=*  Ibid.,  p.  610. 

*7  "  Para  que  cada  uno  piense  que  a  la  nocl  e,  6  d  la  maiiana,  se  le 
puede  caei  la  casa  encima."    Ibid.,  p.  4. 


l8o  CRUEL    POLICY  OF  ALVA. 

to  pay  larger  sums  by  way  of  composition  for  their 
offences. ' ' 

As  the  result  of  the  confiscations,  owing  to  the  drains 
upon  them  above  alluded  to,  proved  less  than  he  ex- 
pected, the  duke,  somewhat  later,  proposed  a  tax  of  one 
per  cent,  on  all  property,  personal  and  real.  But  to 
this  some  of  the  council  had  the  courage  to  object,  as 
a  thing  not  likely  to  be  relished  by  the  states.  "  That 
depends,"  said  Alva,  "on  the  way  in  which  they  are 
approached."  He  had  as  little  love  for  the  states- 
general  as  his  master,  and  looked  on  applications  to 
them  for  money  as  something  derogatory  to  the  crown. 
"I  would  take  care  to  ask  for  it,"  he  said,  "  as  I  did 
when  I  wanted  money  to  build  the  citadel  of  Antwerp, 
■ — in  such  a  way  that  they  should  not  care  to  refuse  it."  ^ 

The  most  perfect  harmony  seems  to  have  subsisted  be- 
tween the  king  and  Alva  in  their  operations  for  destroy- 
ing the  liberties  of  the  nation, — so  perfect,  indeed,  that 
it  could  have  been  the  result  only  of  some  previous  plan, 
concerted  probably  while  the  duke  was  in  Castile.  The 
details  of  the  execution  were  doubtless  left,  as  they 
arose,  to  Alva's  discretion.  But  they  so  entirely  re- 
ceived the  royal  sanction — as  is  abundantly  shown  by 
the  correspondence — that  Philip  may  be  said  to  have 
made  every  act  of  his  general  his  own.  And  not  un- 
frequently  we  find  the  monarch  improving  on  the  hints 
of  his  correspondent  by  some  additional  suggestion. =» 

=8  "  Esto  se  ha  de  proponer  en  la  forma  que  yo  propuse  d  los  de 
Anvers  los  cuatrocientos  mill  florines  para  la  ciudadela,  y  que  ellob 
entiendan  que  aunque  se  les  propone  y  se  les  pide,  es  en  tal  manera 
que  lo  que  se  propusiere  no  se  ha  de  dejar  de  hacer."  Documentos 
in^ditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  492. 

=9  Thus,  for  example,  when  Alva  states  that  the  council  had  declared 


GENERAL    PROSECUTIONS.  t8i 

Whatever  evils  grew  out  of  the  mal-administration  of 
the  duke  of  Alva,  the  responsibility  for  the  measures 
rests  ultimately  on  the  head  of  Philip. 

One  of  the  early  acts  of  the  new  council  was  to  issue 
a  summons  to  the  prince  of  Orange,  and  to  each  of 
the  noble  exiles  in  his  company,  to  present  themselves 
at  Brussels  and  answer  the  charges  against  them.  In 
the  summons  addressed  to  William,  he  was  accused  of 
having  early  encouraged  a  spirit  of  disaffection  in  the 
nation  ;  of  bringing  the  Inquisition  into  contempt ;  of 
promoting  the  confederacy  of  the  nobles  and  opening 
his  own  palace  of  Breda  for  their  discussions ;  of 
authorizing  the  exercise  of  the  reformed  religion  in 
Antwerp ;  in  fine,  of  being  at  the  bottom  of  the  trou- 
bles, civil  and  religious,  which  had  so  long  distracted 
the  land.  He  was  required,  therefore,  under  pain  of 
confiscation  of  his  property  and  perpetual  exile,  to 
present  himself  before  the  council  a.t  Brussels  within 
the  space  of  six  weeks,  and  answer  the  charges  against 
him.  This  summons  was  proclaimed  by  the  public 
crier  both  in  Brussels  and  in  William's  own  town  of 
Breda;  and  a  placard  containing  it  was  affixed  to  the 
door  of  the  principal  church  in  each  of  those  places. 3° 

all  those  who  signed  the  Compromise  guilty  of  treason,  Philip  notes, 
in  his  own  handwriting,  on  the  margin  of  the  letter,  "  The  same  should 
be  done  with  all  who  aided  and  abetted  them,  as  in  fact  the  more 
guilty  party."  (Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  590.) 
These  private  memoranda  of  Philip  are  of  real  value  to  the  historian, 
letting  him  behind  the  curtain,  where  the  king's  own  ministers  could 
not  always  penetrate. 

30  Cornejo,  Disension  de  Flandes,  fol.  63,  et  seq. — Hist,  des  Trou- 
bles et  Guerres  civiles  des  Pays-Bas,  pp.  133-136. — Documentos 
ineditos,  torn.  iv.  pp.  428-439. — Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange- 
Nassau,  torn.  iii.  p.  119. 

Philip.— Vol.  IT.  •  16 


l82  CRUEL    POLICY  OF  ALVA. 

Alva  followed  up  this  act  by  another,  which  ex- 
cited general  indignation  through  the  country.  He 
caused  the  count  of  Buren,  William's  eldest  son, 
then  a  lad  pursuing  his  studies  at  Louvain,  to  be  re- 
moved from  the  university  and  sent  to  Spain,  His 
tutor  and  several  of  his  domestics  were  allowed  to 
accompany  him.  But  the  duke  advised  the  king  to 
get  rid  of  these  attendants  as  speedily  as  possible, 
and  fill  their  places  with  Spaniards. 3'  This  unwar- 
rantable act  appears  to  have  originated  with  Granvelle, 
who  recommends  it  in  one  of  his  letters  from  Rome.^ 
The  object,  no  doubt,  was  to  secure  some  guarantee 
for  the  father's  obedience,  as  well  as  to  insure  the 
loyalty  of  the  heir  of  the  house  of  Nassau  and  to  re- 
tain him  in  the  Catholic  faith.  In  the  last  object 
the  plan  succeeded.  The  youth  was  kindly  treated 
by  Philip,  and  his  long  residence  in  Spain  nourished 
in  him  so  strong  an  attachment  to  both  Church  and 
crown  that  he  was  ever  after  divorced  from  the  great 
cause  in  which  his  father  and  his  countrymen  were 
embarked. 

The  prince  of  Orange  published  to  the  world  his 
sense  of  the  injury  done  to  him  by  this  high-handed 
proceeding  of  the  duke  of  Alva;  and  the  university 
of  Louvain  boldly  sent  a  committee  to  the  council  to 
remonstrate  on  the  violation  of  their  privileges.  Var- 
gas listened  to  them  with  a  smile  of  contempt,  and,  as 
he  dismissed  the  deputation,  exclaimed,  ^' Non  curamus 

3»  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii.  p.  13. 

3»  "  Non-seulement  afin  qu'il  servit  d'otage  pour  ce  que  son  p^re 
pourrait  faire  en  Allemagne,  mais  pour  qu'il  fut  61ev^  catholique- 
ment."     Ibid.,  torn.  i.  p.  596. 


GENERAL   PROSECUTIONS.  183 

vcstros privilegios,^'' — an  exclamation  long  remembered 
for  its  bad  Latin  as  well  as  for  its  insolence. ^^ 

It  may  well  be  believed  that  neither  William  nor  his 
friends  obeyed  the  summons  of  the  Council  of  Blood. 
The  prince,  in  a  reply  which  was  printed  and  circulated 
abroad,  denied  the  authority  of  Alva  to  try  him.  As 
a  knight  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  he  had  a  right  to  be 
tried  by  his  peers;  as  a  citizen  of  Brabant,  by  his 
countrymen.  He  was  not  bound  to  present  himself 
before  an  incompetent  tribunal, — one,  moreover,  which 
had  his  avowed  personal  enemy  at  its  head. 3'* 

The  prince,  during  his  residence  in  Germany,  expe- 
rienced all  those  alleviations  of  his  misfortunes  Avhich 
the  sympathy  and  support  of  powerful  friends  could 
afford.  Among  these  the  most  deserving  of  notice  was 
AVilliam  the  Wise,  a  worthy  son  of  the  famous  old 
landgrave  of  Hesse  who  so  stoutly  maintained  the 
Protestant  cause  against  Charles  the  Fifth.  He  and 
the  elector  of  Saxony,  both  kinsmen  of  William's  wife, 
offered  to  provide  an  establishment  for  the  prince,  while 
he  remained  in  Germany,  which,  if  it  was  not  on  the 
magnificent  scale  to  which  he  had  been  used  in  the 
Netherlands,  was  still  not  unsuited  to  the  dignity  of 
his  rank.  35 

The  little  court  of  William  received  every  day  fresh 
accessions  from  those  who  fled  from  persecution  in  the 
Netherlands.     They  brought  with  them  appeals  to  him 

33  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  372. — Vandervynckt,  Troubles 
des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  p.  261. 

34  Strada,  ubi  supra. — Vandervynckt,  Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  torn, 
ii.  p.  243. — Auberi,  Histoire  de  Hollande,  p.  25. 

35  Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  torn.  iii.  p.  159. 


1 84  CRUEL   POLICY  OF  ALVA. 

from  his  countrymen  to  interpose  in  their  behalf.  The 
hour  had  not  yet  come.  But  still  he  was  not  idle.  He 
was  earnestly  endeavoring  to  interest  the  German  princes 
in  the  cause,  was  strengthening  his  own  resources,  and 
steadily,  though  silently,  making  preparations  for  the 
great  struggle  with  the  oppressors  of  his  country. 

While  these  events  were  passing  in  the  Netherlands, 
the  neighboring  monarchy  of  France  was  torn  by  those 
religious  dissensions  which  at  this  period  agitated,  in 
a  greater  or  less  degree,  most  of  the  states  of  Chris- 
tendom. One  half  of  the  French  nation  was  in  arms 
against  the  other  half.  At  the  time  of  our  history  the 
Huguenots  had  gained  a  temporary  advantage ;  their 
combined  forces  were  beleaguering  the  capital,  in  which 
the  king  and  Catherine  de  Medicis,  his  mother,  were 
then  held  prisoners.  In  this  extremity,  Catherine 
appealed  to  Margaret  to  send  a  body  of  troops  to  her 
assistance.  The  regent  hesitated  as  to  what  course  to 
take,  and  referred  the  matter  to  Alva.  He  did  not 
hesitate.  He  knew  Philip's  disposition  in  regard  to 
France,  and  had  himself,  probably,  come  to  an  under- 
standing on  the  subject  with  the  queen-mother  in  the 
famous  interview  at  Bayonne.  He  proposed  to  send  a 
body  of  three  thousand  horse  to  her  relief.  At  the 
same  time  he  wrote  to  Catherine,  offering  to  leave  the 
Low  Countries  and  march  himself  to  her  support  with 
his  whole  strength,  five  thousand  horse  and  fifteen 
thousand  foot,  all  his  Spanish  veterans  included,  pro- 
vided she  would  bring  matters  to  an  issue  and  finish  at 
once  with  the  enemies  of  their  religion.  The  duke 
felt  how  powerfully  such  a  result  would  react  on  the 
Catholic  cause  in  the  Netherlands. 


CIVIL    WAR   IN  FRANCE.  185 

He  besought  Catherine  to  come  to  no  terms  with 
the  rebels;  above  all,  to  make  them  no  concessions. 
"Such  concessions  must  of  necessity  be  either  spiritual 
or  temporal.  If  spiritual,  they  would  be  opposed  to 
the  rights  of  God ;  if  temporal,  to  the  rights  of  the 
king.  Better  to  reign  over  a  ruined  land,  which  yet 
remains  true  to  its  God  and  its  king,  than  over  one  left 
unharmed  ibr  the  benefit  of  the  devil  and  his  followers, 
the  heretics." 3*  In  this  declaration,  breathing  the  full 
spirit  of  religious  and  political  absolutism,  may  be  found 
the  true  key  to  the  policy  of  Alva  and  of  his  master. 

Philip  heartily  approved  of  the  views  taken  by  his 
general. ^^  As  the  great  champion  of  Catholicism,  he 
looked  with  the  deepest  interest  on  the  religious  struggle 
going  forward  in  the  neighboring  kingdom,  which  exer- 
cised so  direct  an  influence  on  the  revolutionary  move- 
ments in  the  Netherlands.  He  strongly  encouraged  the 
queen-mother  to  yield  nothing  to  the  heretics.  "With 
his  own  person,"  he  declared,  "and  with  all  that  he 
possessed,  he  was  ready  to  serve  the  French  crown  in  its 
contest  with  the  rebels.  "^^  Philip's  zeal  in  the  cause 
was  so  well  understood  in  France  that  some  of  the 

36  "  Or,  il  vaut  beaucoup  mieux  avoir  un  royaume  ruine,  en  le  con- 
servant  pour  Dieu  et  le  roi,  au  moyen  de  la  guerre,  que  de  I'avoir 
tout  entier  sans  celle-ci,  au  profit  du  demon  et  des  heretiques,  ses 
sectateurs."     Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  609. 

37  This  appears  not  merely  from  the  king's  letters  to  the  duke,  but 
from  a  still  more  unequivocal  testimony,  the  minutes  in  his  own 
handwriting  on  the  duke's  letters  to  him.  See,  in  particular,  his 
summary  approval  of  the  reply  which  Alva  tells  him  he  has  made  to 
Catherine  de  Medicis :  "  Yo  lo  mismo,  todo  lo  demas  que  dice  en  este 
capitulo,  que  todo  ha  sido  may  d  proposito."     Ibid.,  p.  591. 

38  Ranke,  Civil  Wars  and  Monarchy  in  France  in  the  Sixteenth 
and  Seventeenth  Centuries  (Eng.  trans.),  vol.  i.  p.  349. 

16* 


l86  CRUEL   POLICY  OF  ALVA, 

Catholic  leaders  did  not  scruple  to  look  to  him,  rather 
than  to  their  own  government,  as  the  true  head  of  their 
party.  39 

Catherine  de  Medicis  did  not  discover  the  same  un- 
compromising spirit,  and  had  before  this  disgusted  her 
royal  son-in-law  by  the  politic  views  which  mingled 
with  her  religion.  On  the  present  occasion  she  did 
not  profit  by  the  brilliant  offer  made  to  her  by  Alva  to 
come  in  person  at  the  head  of  his  army.  She  may 
have  thought  so  formidable  a  presence  might  endanger 
the  independence  of  the  government.  Roman  Catholic 
as  she  was  at  heart,  she  preferred,  with  true  Italian 
policy,  balancing  the  rival  factions  against  each  other, 
to  exterminating  either  of  them  altogether.  The  duke 
saw  that  Catherine  was  not  disposed  to  strike  at  the 
root  of  the  evil,  and  that  the  advantages  to  be  secured 
by  success  would  be  only  temporary.  He  contented 
himself,  therefore,  with  despatching  a  smaller  force, 
chiefly  of  Flemish  troops,  under  Aremberg.  Before 
the  count  reached  Paris,  the  battle  of  St.  Denis  had 
been  fought.  Montmorenci  fell,  but  the  royal  party 
was  victorious.  Catherine  made  a  treaty  with  the 
discomfited  Huguenots  as  favorable  to  them  as  if  they, 
not  she,  had  won  the  fight.     Alva,  disgusted  with  the 

39  The  cardinal  of  Lorraine  went  so  far  as  to  offer,  in  a  certain  con- 
tingency, to  put  several  strong  frontier  places  into  Alva's  hands.  In 
case  the  French  king  and  his  brothers  should  die  without  heirs,  the 
king  of  Spain  might  urge  his  own  claim  through  his  wife,  as  nearest 
of  blood,  to  the  crown  of  France.  "  The  Salic  law,"  adds  the  duke, 
"  is  but  a  jest.  All  difficulties  will  be  easily  smoothed  away  with  the 
help  of  an  army."  Philip,  in  a  marginal  note  to  this  letter,  intimates 
his  relisli  for  the  proposal.    See  Correspondance  dc  Philippe  II.,  torn, 

P-  593- 


DEPARTURE    OF  MARGARET.  187 

issue,  ordered  the  speedy  return  of  Aremberg,  whose 
presence,  moreover,  was  needed  on  a  more  active 
theatre  of  operations. 

During  all  this  while  Margaret's  position  afforded  a 
pitiable  contrast  to  the  splendid  elevation  which  she 
had  occupied  for  so  many  years  as  head  of  the  govern- 
ment. Not  only  had  the  actual  power  passed  from  her 
iTands,  but  she  felt  that  all  her  influence  had  gone  with 
it.  She  hardly  enjoyed  even  the  right  of  remonstrance. 
In  this  position,  she  had  the  advantage  of  being  more 
favorably  situated  for  criticising  the  conduct  of  the 
administration  than  when  she  was  herself  at  the  head 
of  it.  She  became  more  sensible  of  the  wrongs  of  the 
people,— now  that  they  were  inflicted  by  other  hands 
than  her  own.  She  did  not  refuse  to  intercede  in  their 
behalf.  She  deprecated  the  introduction  of  a  garrison 
into  the  good  city  of  Brussels.  If  this  were  necessary, 
she  still  besought  the  duke  not  to  allow  the  loyal  in- 
habitants to  be  burdened  with  the  maintenance  of  the 
soldiers.**  But  he  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  her  petition. 
She  urged  that,  after  the  chastisement  already  inflicted 
on  the  nation,  the  only  way  to  restore  quiet  was  by  a 
general  amnesty.  The  duke  replied  that  no  amnesty 
could  be  so  general  but  there  must  be  some  exceptions, 
and  it  would  take  time  to  determine  who  should  be 
excepted.     She  recommended  that  the  states  be  called 

40  The  municipality  of  Brussels,  alarmed  at  the  interpretation  which 
the  duke,  after  Margaret's  departure,  might  put  on  certain  equivocal 
passages  in  their  recent  history,  obtained  a  letter  from  the  regent, 
in  which  she  warmly  commends  the  good  people  of  the  capital  as 
zealous  Catholics,  loyal  to  their  king,  and  on  all  occasions  prompt  to 
show  themselves  the  friends  of  public  order.  See  the  correspondence, 
ap.  Gachard,  Analectes  Belgiques,  p.  343,  et  seq. 


1 88  CRUEL   POLICY  OF  ALVA. 

together  to  vote  the  supplies.  He  evaded  this  also  by 
saying  it  would  be  necessary  first  to  decide  on  the 
amount  of  the  subsidy  to  be  raised."'  The  regent  felt 
that  in  all  matters  of  real  moment  she  had  as  little 
weight  as  any  private  individual  in  the  country. 

From  this  state  of  humiliation  she  was  at  last  relieved 
by  the  return  of  her  secretary,  Machiavelli,  who  brought 
with  him  despatches  from  Ruy  Gomez,  Philip's  favcfr- 
ite  minister.  He  informed  the  duchess  that  the  king, 
though  reluctantly,  had  at  last  acceded  to  her  request 
and  allowed  her  to  resign  the  government  of  the  prov- 
inces. In  token  of  his  satisfaction  with  her  conduct, 
his  majesty  had  raised  the  pension  which  she  had 
hitherto  enjoyed,  of  eight  thousand  florins,  to  fourteen 
thousand,  to  be  paid  her  yearly  during  the  remainder 
of  her  life.  This  letter  was  dated  on  the  sixth  of 
October."*  Margaret  soon  after  received  one,  dated 
four  days  later,  from  Philip  himself,  of  much  the  same 
tenor  with  that  of  his  minister.  The  king,  in  a  few 
words,  intimated  the  regret  he  felt  at  his  sister's  retire- 
ment from  office,  and  the  sense  he  entertained  of  the 
services  she  had  rendered  him  by  her  long  and  faithful 
administration.  "3 

The  increase  of  the  pension  showed  no  very  extrava- 
gant estimate  of  these  services;  and  the  parsimonious 
tribute  which,  after  his  long  silence,  he  now,  in  a  few 

*•  Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  481,  et  seq. 

42  Correspoiidance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  583. 

43  The  king's  acknowledgments  to  his  sister  are  condensed  into  the 
sentence  with  which  he  concludes  his  letter,  or,  more  properly,  his 
billet.  This  is  dated  October  13th,  1568,  and  is  published  by  Ga- 
chard,  in  the  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn,  ii.,  Appendix,  No, 
119. 


DEPARTURE    OF  MARGARET.  189 

brief  sentences,  paid  to  her  deserts,  too  plainly  inti- 
mated that  all  she  had  done  had  failed  to  excite  even 
a  feeling  of  gratitude  in  the  bosom  of  her  brother."^ 
At  the  same  time  with  the  letter  to  Margaret  came  a 
commission  to  the  duke  of  Alva,  investing  him  with 
the  title  of  regent  and  governor-general,  together  with 
all  the  powers  that  had  been  possessed  by  his  pre- 
decessor.'•s 

Margaret  made  only  one  request  of  Philip,  previous 
to  her  departure.  This  he  denied  her.  Her  father, 
Charles  the  Fifth,  at  the  time  of  his  abdication,  had 
called  the  states-general  together  and  taken  leave  of 
them  in  a  farewell  address,  which  was  still  cherished  as 
a  legacy  by  his  subjects.  Margaret  would  have  imitated 
his  example.  The  grandeur  of  the  spectacle  pleased 
her  imagination,  and  she  was  influenced,  no  doubt,  by 
the  honest  desire  of  manifesting,  in  the  hour  of  separa- 
tion, some  feelings  of  a  kindly  nature  for  the  people 
over  whom  she  had  ruled  for  so  many  years. 

But  Philip,  as  we  have  seen,  had  no  relish  for  these 
meetings  of  the  states.  He  had  no  idea  of  consenting 
to  them  on  an  emergency  no  more  pressing  than  the 
present.  Margaret  was  obliged,  therefore,  to  relin- 
quish the  pageant,  and  to  content  herself  with  taking 
leave  of  the  people  by  letters  addressed  to  the  principal 
cities  of  the  provinces.  In  these  she  briefly  touched  on 
the  difficulties  which  had  lain  in  her  path,  and  on  the 

44  "  Elle  re9ut,"  says  De  Thou  with  some  huinor,  "  enfin  d'Espagne 
une  lettre  pleine  d'amitie  et  de  tendresse,  telle  qu'on  a  coutiime 
d'ecrire  k  une  personne  qu'on  remercie  apr^s  I'avoir  depouillee  de  sa 
dignity."     Hist,  universelle,  torn.  v.  p.  439. 

45  A  copy  of  the  original  is  to  be  found  in  the  Coriespondance  de 
Philippe  II.,  torn,  ii.,  Appendix,  No.  118. 


ipo 


CRUEL   POLICY  OF  ALVA. 


satisfaction  which  she  felt  at  having  at  length  brought 
the  country  to  a  state  of  tranquillity  and  order.  She 
besought  them  to  remain  always  constant  in  the  faith 
in  which  they  had  been  nurtured,  as  well  as  in  their 
loyalty  to  a  prince  so  benign  and  merciful  as  the  king, 
her  brother.  In  so  doing,  the  blessing  of  Heaven  would 
rest  upon  them ;  and,  for  her  own  part,  she  would  ever 
be  found  ready  to  use  her  good  offices  in  their  behalf.''^ 

She  proved  her  sincerity  by  a  letter  written  to  Philip, 
before  her  departure,  in  which  she  invoked  his  mercy 
in  behalf  of  his  Flemish  subjects.  "Mercy,"  she  said, 
"was  a  divine  attribute.  The  greater  the  power  pos- 
sessed by  a  monarch,  the  nearer  he  approached  the 
Deity,  and  the  more  should  he  strive  to  imitate  the 
divine  clemency  and  compassion. ''^  His  royal  pre- 
decessors had  contented  themselves  with  punishing  the 
leaders  of  sedition,  while  they  spared  the  masses  who 
repented.  Any  other  course  would  confound  the  good 
with  the  bad,  and  bring  such  calamities  on  the  country 
as  his  majesty  could  not  fail  to  appreciate."''^  Well 
had  it  been  for  the  fair  fame  of  Margaret  if  her  coun- 
sels had  always  been  guided  by  such  wise  and  mag- 
nanimous sentiments. 

The  tidings  of  the  regent's  abdication  were  received 

46  The  letter  has  been  inserted  by  Gachard  in  the  Analecte's  Bel- 
giques,  pp.  295-300. 

47  "  Suplicar  muy  liumilmente,  y  con  toda  afeccion,  que  V.  M.  use 
de  clemencia  y  misericordia  con  ellos,  conforme  d  la  esperanza  que 
tantas  vezes  les  ha  dado,  y  que  tenga  en  memoria  que  cuanto  mas 
grandes  son  los  reyes,  y  se  acorcan  mas  d  Dios,  tanto  mas  deben  ser 
imitadores  de  esta  grande  divina  bondad,  poder,  y  clemencia."  Cor- 
respondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  603. 

48  Ibid.,  loc.  cit. 


DEPARTURE    OF  MARGARET. 


191 


with  dismay  throughout  the  provinces.  All  the  errors 
of  her  government,  her  acts  of  duplicity,  the  excessive 
rigor  with  which  she  had  of  late  visited  offences, — all 
were  forgotten  in  the  regret  felt  for  her  departure. 
Men  thought  only  of  the  prosperity  which  the  country 
had  enjoyed  under  her  rule,  the  confidence  which  in 
earlier  years  she  had  bestowed  on  the  friends  of  the 
people,  the  generous  manner  in  which  she  had  inter- 
posed on  more  than  one  occasion  to  mitigate  the  hard 
policy  of  the  court  of  Madrid.  And  as  they  turned 
from  these  more  brilliant  passages  of  her  history,  their 
hearts  were  filled  with  dismay  while  they  looked 
gloomily  into  the  future. 

Addresses  poured  in  upon  her  from  all  quarters. 
The  different  cities  vied  with  one  another  in  expres- 
sions of  regret  for  her  departure,  while  they  invoked 
the  blessings  of  Heaven  on  her  remaining  days.  More 
than  one  of  the  provinces  gave  substantial  evidence  of 
their  good  will  by  liberal  donatives.  Brabant  voted 
her  the  sum  of  twenty-five  thousand  florins,  and  Flan- 
ders thirty  thousand.'"  The  neighboring  princ.es,  and 
among  them  Elizabeth  of  England,  joined  with  the 
people  of  the  Netherlands  in  professions  of  respect  for 
the  regent,  as  well  as  of  regret  that  she  was  to  relin- 
quish the  government. 5° 

Cheered  by  these  assurances  of  the  consideration  in 
which  she  was  held  both  at  home  and  abroad,  Marga- 

49  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii.  p.  6. 

50  "  Superavitque  omnes  Elizabetha  Angliae  Regina,  tarn  bonse 
caraeque  sororis,  uti  scribebat,  vicinitate  in  posterum  caritura;" 
"sive,"  adds  the  historian,  with  candid  skepticism,  "is  amor  fuit  in 
Margaritam,  sive  sollicitudo  ex  Albano  successore."  Strada.  De 
Belle  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  365. 


192  CRUEL   POLICY  OF  ALVA. 

ret  quitted  Brussels  at  the  close  of  December,  1567. 
She  was  attended  to  the  borders  of  Brabant  by  Alva, 
and  thence  conducted  to  Germany  by  Count  Mans- 
feldt  and  an  escort  of  Flemish  nobles. s'  There  bidding 
adieu  to  all  that  remained  of  her  former  state,  she  pur- 
sued her  journey  quietly  to  Italy.  For  some  time  she 
continued  with  her  husband  in  his  ducal  residence  at 
Parma.  But,  wherever  lay  the  fault,  it  was  Margaret's 
misfortune  to  taste  but  little  of  the  sweets  of  domestic 
intercourse.  Soon  afterwards  she  removed  to  Naples, 
and  there  permanently  established  her  abode,  on  es- 
tates which  had  been  granted  her  by  the  crown.  Many 
years  later,  when  her  son,  Alexander  Farnese,  was 
called  to  the  government  of  the  Netherlands,  she 
quitted  her  retirement  to  take  part  with  him  in  the 
direction  of  public  affairs.  It  was  but  for  a  moment ; 
and  her  present  departure  from  the  Netherlands  may 
be  regarded  as  the  close  of  her  political  existence. 

The  government  of  Margaret  continued  from  the 
autumn  of  1559  to  the  end  of  1567,  a  period  of  eight 
years.  It  was  a  stormy  and  most  eventful  period;  for 
it  was  then  that  the  minds  of  men  were  agitated  to 
their  utmost  depths  by  the  new  doctrines  which  gave 
birth  to  the  revolution.  Margaret's  regency,  indeed, 
may  be  said  to  have  furnished  the  opening  scenes  of 
that  great  drama.  The  inhabitants  of  the  Low  Coun- 
tries were  accustomed  to  the  sway  of  a  woman.  Mar- 
s' Historians  vary  considerably  as  to  the  date  of  Margaret's  de- 
parture. She  crossed  the  frontier  of  the  Netherlands  probably  by  the 
middle  of  January,  1568.  At  least,  we  find  a  letter  from  her  to  Philip 
when  she  had  nearly  reached  the  borders,  dated  at  Luxembourg,  on 
the  twelfth  of  that  month. 


HER  ADMINISTRATION  REVIEWED. 


193 


garet  was  the  third  of  her  hne  that  had  been  intrusted 
with  the  regency.  In  qualifications  for  the  office  she 
was  probably  not  inferior  to  her  predecessors.  Her 
long  residence  in  Italy  had  made  her  acquainted  with 
the  principles  of  government  in  a  country  where  polit- 
ical science  was  more  carefully  studied  than  in  any  other 
quarter  of  Europe.  She  was  habitually  industrious, 
and  her  robust  frame  was  capable  of  any  amount  of 
labor.  If  she  was  too  masculine  in  her  nature  to  allow 
of  the  softer  qualities  of  her  sex,  she  was,  on  the  other 
hand,  exempt  from  the  fondness  for  pleasure  and  from 
most  of  the  frivolities  which  belonged  to  the  women 
of  the  voluptuous  clime  in  which  she  had  lived.  She 
was  stanch  in  her  devotion  to  the  Catholic  faith;  and 
her  loyalty  was  such  that  from  the  moment  of  assuming 
the  government  she  acknowledged  no  stronger  motive 
than  that  of  conformity  to  the  will  of  her  sovereign. 
She  was  fond  of  power;  and  she  well  knew  that,  with 
Philip,  absolute  conformity  to  his  will  was  the  only 
condition  on  which  it  was  to  be  held. 

With  her  natural  good  sense,  and  the  general  mod- 
eration of  her  views,  she  would,  doubtless,  have  ruled 
over  the  land  as  prosperously  as  her  predecessors,  had 
the  times  been  like  theirs.  But,  unhappily  for  her,  the 
times  had  greatly  changed.  Still,  Margaret,  living  on 
the  theatre  of  action  and  feeling  the  pressure  of  cir- 
cumstances, would  have  gone  far  to  conform  to  the 
change.  But  unfortunately  she  represented  a  prince, 
dwelling  at  a  distance,  who  knew  no  change  himself, 
allowed  no  concessions  to  others, — whose  conservative 
policy  rested  wholly  on  the  past. 

It  was  unfortunate  for  Margaret  that  she  never  fully 
Philip.— Vol.  II.— I  17 


194 


CRUEL   POLICY  OF  ALVA. 


possessed  tl.e  confidence  of  Philip.  Whether  from 
distrust  of  her  more  accommodating  temper  or  of  her 
capacity  for  government,  he  gave  a  larger  share  of  it, 
at  the  outset,  to  Granvelle  than  to  her.  If  the  regent 
could  have  been  blind  to  this,  her  eyes  would  soon 
have  been  opened  to  the  fact  by  the  rivals  who  hated 
the  minister.  It  was  not  long  before  she  hated  him 
too.  But  the  removal  of  Granvelle  did  not  establish 
her  in  her  brother's  confidence.  It  rather  increased 
his  distrust,  by  the  necessity  it  imposed  on  her  of 
throwing  herself  into  the  arms  of  the  opposite  party, 
the  friends  of  the  people.  From  this  moment  Philip's 
confidence  was  more  heartily  bestowed  on  the  duke 
of  Alva,  even  on  the  banished  Granvelle,  than  on  the 
regent.  Her  letters  remained  too  often  unanswered. 
The  answers,  when  they  did  come,  furnished  only  dark 
and  mysterious  hints  of  the  course  to  be  pursued.  She 
was  left  to  work  out  the  problem  of  government  by 
herself,  sure  for  every  blunder  to  be  called  to  a  strict 
account.  Rumors  of  the  speedy  coming  of  the  king 
suggested  the  idea  that  her  own  dominion  was  transi- 
tory, soon  to  be  superseded  by  that  of  a  higher  power. 
Under  these  disadvantages  she  might  well  have  lost 
all  reliance  on  herself.  She  was  not  even  supplied  with 
the  means  of  carrying  out  her  own  schemes.  She  was 
left  without  money,  without  arms,  without  the  power 
to  pardon, — more  important,  with  a  brave  and  generous 
race,  than  the  power  to  punish.  Thus,  destitute  of 
resources,  without  the  confidence  of  her  employer, 
with  the  people  stoutly  demanding  concessions  on  the 
one  side,  with  tlie  sovereign  sternly  refiising  them  on 
the  other,  it  is  little  to  say  that  Margaret  was  in  a  false 


HER  ADMINISTRATION  REVIEWED. 


195 


position.  Her  position  was  deplorable.  She  ought 
not  to  have  remained  in  it  a  day  after  she  found  that 
she  could  not  hold  it  with  honor.  But  Margaret  was 
too  covetous  of  power  readily  to  resign  it.  Her  mis- 
understanding with  her  husband  made  her,  moreover, 
somewhat  dependent  on  her  brother. 

At  last  came  the  Compromise  and  the  league.  Mar- 
garet's eyes  seemed  now  to  be  first  opened  to  the 
direction  of  the  course  she  was  taking.  This  Avas 
followed  by  the  explosion  of  the  iconoclasts.  The 
shock  fully  awoke  her  from  her  delusion.  She  was 
as  zealous  for  the  Catholic  Church  as  Philip  himself; 
and  she  saw  with  horror  that  it  was  trembling  to  its 
foundations.  A  complete  change  seemed  to  take  place 
in  her  convictions, — in  her  very  nature.  She  repu- 
diated all  those  with  whom  she  had  hitherto  acted. 
She  embraced,  as  heartily  as  he  could  desire,  the  stern 
policy  of  Philip.  She  proscribed,  she  persecuted,  she 
punished, — and  that  with  an  excess  of  rigor  that  does 
little  honor  to  her  memory.  It  was  too  late.  The 
distrust  of  Philip  was  not  to  be  removed  by  this  tardy 
compliance  with  his  wishes.  A  successor  was  already 
appointed  ;  and  at  the  very  moment  when  she  flattered 
herself  that  the  tranquillity  of  the  country  and  her  own 
authority  were  established  on  a  permanent  basis,  the 
duke  of  Alva  was  on  his  march  across  the  mountains. 

Yet  it  was  fortunate  for  Margaret's  reputation  that 
she  was  succeeded  in  the  government  by  a  man  like 
Alva.  The  darkest  spots  on  her  administration  became 
light  when  brought  into  comparisoai  with  his  reign  of 
terror.  From  this  point  of  view  it  has  been  criticised 
by  the  writers  of  her  own  time  and  those  of  later 


196  CRUEL   POLICY  OF  ALVA. 

ages. 5*  And  in  this  way,  probably,  as  the  student  who 
ponders  the  events  of  her  history  may  infer,  a  more 
favorable  judgment  has  been  passed  upon  her  actions 
than  would  be  warranted  by  a  calm  and  deliberate 
scrutiny. 

52  See,  among  others,  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  128 ; 
Guerres  civiles  du  Pays-Bas,  p.  128;  De  Thou,  Hist,  gen.,  torn.  v.  p. 
439;  and  Renom  de  Francia,  Alborotos  de  Flandes,  MS.,  who  in  these 
words  concludes  his  notice  of  Margaret's  departure:  "  Dejando  gran 
reputacion  de  su  virtud  y  un  sentimiento  de  su  partida  en  los  cora- 
zones  de  los  vasallos  de  por  aci.  el  qual  crecio  mucho  despues  ansi 
continuo  quando  se  describio  el  gusto  de  los  humores  y  andamientos 
de  su  succesor." 


CHAPTER    III. 


REIGN   OF   TERROR. 


Numerous  Arrests. — Trials  and  Executions. — Confiscations. — Orange 
assembles  an  Army. — Battle  of  Heyligerlee. — Alva's  Proceedings. 

1568. 

In  the  beginning  of  1568,  Philip,  if  we  may  trust 
the  historians,  resorted  to  a  very  extraordinary  measure 
for  justifying  to  the  world  his  rigorous  proceedings 
against  the  Netherlands.  He  submitted  the  case  to  the 
Inquisition  at  Madrid ;  and  that  ghostly  tribunal,  after 
duly  considering  the  evidence  derived  from  the  in- 
formation of  the  king  and  of  the  inquisitors  in  the 
Netherlands,  came  to  the  following  decision.  All  who 
had  been  guilty  of  heresy,  apostasy,  or  sedition,  and 
all,  moreover,  who,  though  professing  themselves  good 
Catholics,  had  offered  no  resistance  to  these,  were,  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  specified  individuals,  thereby 
convicted  of  treason  in  the  highest  degree.' 

This  sweeping  judgment  was  followed  by  a  royal 
edict,  dated  on  the  same  day,  the  sixteenth  of  Feb- 
ruary, in  which,  after  reciting  the  language  of  the 
Inquisition,  the  whole  nation,  with  the  exception 
above  stated,  was  sentenced,  without  distinction  of 

»  De  Thou,  Hist,  gen.,  tom.  v.  p.  437. — Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays- 
Bas,  fol.  54. — The  latter  historian  cites  the  words  of  the  original 
instrument. 

17*  (197) 


198  REIGN  OF  TERROR. 

sex  or  age,  to  the  penalties  of  treason, — death  and 
confiscation  of  property ;  and  this,  the  decree  went 
on  to  say,  "without  any  hope  of  grace  whatever,  that 
it  might  serve  for  an  example  and  a  warning  to  all 
future  time  !"* 

It  is  difficult  to  give  credit  to  a  story  so  monstrous, 
repeated  though  it  has  been  by  successive  writers 
without  the  least  distrust  of  its  correctness.  Not  that 
any  thing  can  be  too  monstrous  to  be  believed  of  the 
Inquisition.  But  it  is  not  easy  to  believe  that  a 
sagacious  prince  like  Philip  the  Second,  however  will- 
ing he  might  be  to  shelter  himself  under  the  mantle  of 
the  Holy  Office,  could  have  lent  himself  to  an  act  as 
impolitic  as  it  was  absurd ;  one  that,  confounding  the 
innocent  with  the  guilty,  would  drive  both  to  despera- 
tion,— would  incite  the  former,  from  a  sense  of  injury, 
to  take  up  rebellion,  by  which  there  was  nothing  more 
to  lose,  and  the  latter  to  persist  in  it,  since  there  was 
nothing  more  to  hope.^ 

The  messenger  who  brought  to  Margaret  the  royal 
permission  to  resign  the  regency  delivered  to  Alva  his 
commission  as  captain-general  of  the  Netherlands. 
This  would  place  the  duke,  as  Philip  wrote  him,  be- 

'  "  Voiilans  et  ordonnans  qu'ainsi  en  soit  faict,  afin  quexeste  serl- 
euse  sentence  serve  d'exemple,  et  donne  crainte  pour  I'advenir,  sans 
aucune  espcrance  de  grace."     Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  54. 

3  Among  contemporary  writers  whom  I  have  consulted,  I  find  no 
authorities  for  this  remarkable  statement  except  Meteren  and  De 
Thou.  This  might  seem  strange  to  one  who  credited  the  story,  but 
not  so  strange  as  that  a  proceeding  so  extraordinary  should  have 
escaped  the  vigilance  of  Llorente,  the  secretary  of  the  Holy  Office, 
who  had  all  its  papers  at  his  command.  I  have  met  with  no  allusion 
whatever  to  it  in  his  pages. 


NUMEROUS  ARRESTS. 


199 


yond  the  control  of  the  council  of  finance  in  the 
important  matter  of  the  confiscations.''  It  raised  him, 
indeed,  not  only  above  that  council,  but  above  every 
other  council  in  the  country.  It  gave  him  an  authority 
I  not  less  than  that  of  the  sovereign  himself.  And 
Alva  prepared  to  stretch  this  to  an  extent  greater  than 
any  sovereign  of  the  Netherlands  had  ever  ventured 
on.  The  time  had  now  come  to  put  his  terrible  ma- 
chinery into  operation.  The  regent  was  gone,  who, 
if  she  could  not  curb,  might  at  least  criticise  his 
actions.  The  prisons  were  full;  the  processes  were 
completed.  Nothing  remained  but  to  pass  sentence 
and  to  execute. 

On  the  fourth  of  January,  1568,  we  find  eighty-four 
persons  sentenced  to  death  at  Valenciennes  on  the 
charge  of  having  taken  part  in  the  late  movements, — 
religious  or  political. ^  On  the  twentieth  of  February, 
ninety-five  persons  were  arraigned  before  the  Council 
of  Blood,  and  thirty-seven  capitally  convicted.*  On 
the  twentieth  of  March  thirty-five  more  were  con- 
demned.^ The  governor's  emissaries  were  out  in  every 
direction.  "I  heard  that  preaching  was  going  on  at 
Antwerp,"  he  writes  to  Philip,  "and  I  sent  my  own 
provost  there,  for  I  cannot  trust  the  authorities.  He 
arrested  a  good  number  of  heretics.     They  will  never 

•♦  "  Au  moyen  de  la  patente  de  gouverneur  general  que  le  due  aura 
re9ue,  il  pourra  faire  cesser  les  entraves  que  mettait  le  conseil  des 
finances  \  ce  qu'il  disposal  des  deniers  des  confiscations."  Corre- 
spondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  609. 

5  Bulletins  de  I'Academie  Royale  de  Belgique,  torn.  xvi.  par.  ii. 
p.  62. 

6  Ibid.,  p.  62. 

7  Ibid.,  p.  63. 


200  REIGN  OF  TERROR. 

attend  another  such  meeting.  The  magistrates  com- 
plain that  the  interference  of  the  provost  was  a  violation 
of  their  privileges.  The  magistrates  may  as  well  take 
it  patiently. ' '  ®  The  pleasant  manner  in  which  the  duke 
talks  over  the  fate  of  his  victims  with  his  master  may, 
remind  one  of  the  similar  dialogues  between  Petit  Andr6 
and  Louis  the  Eleventh,  in  "Quentin  Durward." 

The  proceedings  in  Ghent  may  show  the  course  pur- 
sued in  the  other  cities.  Commissioners  were  sent  to 
that  capital,  to  ferret  out  the  suspected.  No  less  than 
a  hundred  and  forty-seven  were  summoned  before  the 
council  at  Brussels.  Their  names  were  cried  about  the 
streets  and  posted  up  in  placards  on  the  public  build- 
ings. Among  them  were  many  noble  and  wealthy  in- 
dividuals. The  officers  were  particularly  instructed  to 
ascertain  the  wealth  of  the  parties.  Most  of  the  accused 
contrived  to  make  their  escape.  They  preferred  flight 
to  the  chance  of  an  acquittal  by  the  bloody  tribunal, — • 
though  flight  involved  certain  banishment  and  confis- 
cation of  property.  Eighteen  only  answered  the  sum- 
mons by  repairing  to  Brussels.  They  were  all  arrested 
on  the  same  day,  at  their  lodgings,  and,  without  ex- 
ception, were  sentenced  to  death  !  Five  or  six  of  the 
principal  were  beheaded.  The  rest  perished  on  the 
gallows.' 

8  "  Le  magistrat  s'est  plaint  de  I'infraction  de  ses  privileges,  k  cause 
de  renvoi  dudit  prevot ;  mais  il  faudra  bien  qu'il  prenne  patience." 
Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii.  p.  13. 

9  Vandervynckt,  Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  pp.  243-247. — 1  he 
autlior  tells  us  he  collected  these  particulars  from  the  memoirs  and 
diaries  of  eye-witnesses, — confirmed,  moreover,  by  the  acts  and  public 
registers  of  the  time.  The  authenticity  of  the  statement,  he  adds,  is 
incontestable. 


TRIALS  AND  EXECUTIONS.  201 

Impatient  of  what  seemed  to  him  a  too  tardy  method 
of  following  up  his  game,  the  duke  determined  on  a 
bolder  movement,  and  laid  his  plans  for  driving  a 
goodly  number  of  victims  into  the  toils  at  once.  He 
fixed  on  Ash  Wednesday  for  the  time, — the  beginning 
of  Lent,  when  men,  after  the  Carnival  was  past,  would 
be  gathered  soberly  in  their  own  dwellings."  The 
officers  of  justice  entered  their  premises  at  dead  of 
night,  and  no  less  than  five  hundred  citizens  were 
dragged  from  their  beds  and  hurried  off  to  prison." 
They  all  received  sentence  of  death!"  "I  have  re- 
iterated the  sentence  again  and  again,"  he  writes  to 
Philip,  "for  they  torment  me  with  inquiries  whether 
in  this  or  that  case  it  might  not  be  commuted  for 
banishment.      They  weary  me  of  my  life  with  their 

'°  See  the  circular  of  Alva  to  the  officers  charged  with  these  arrests, 
in  the  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn,  ii.,  Appendi.x,  p.  660. 

"  "  Et,  affin  que  ledict  due  d'Alve  face  apparoir  de  plus  son  affec- 
tion sanguinaire  et  tyrannicque,  il  a,  passe  peu  de  temps,  faict  appre- 
hender,  tout  sur  une  nuict  [le  3  mars,  1568],  en  toutes  les  villcs  des 
pays  d'embas,  ung  grand  nombre  de  ceulx  qu'il  a  tenu  suspect  en 
leur  foy,  et  les  faict  mectre  hors  leurs  maisons  et  lictz  en  prison,  pour 
en  apr^s,  ^  sa  commodite,  faire  son  plaisir  et  volunte  avecque  lesdicts 
prisonniers."  Correspondance  de  Guillaume  le  Taciturne,  torn.  iii. 
p.  9. — The  extract  is  from  a  memorial  addressed  by  William  to  the 
emperor,  vindicating  his  own  course,  and  exposing,  with  the  indignant 
eloquence  of  a  patriot,  the  wrongs  and  calamities  of  his  country. 
This  document,  printed  by  Gachard,  is  a  version  from  the  German 
original  by  the  hand  of  a  contemporary.  A  modern  translation — so 
ambitious  in  its  style  that  one  may  distrust  its  fidelity — is  also  to  be 
found  in  the  Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  Supplement,  p. 
91,  et  seq. 

"  "  Se  prendieron  cerca  de  quinientos.  .  .  .  He  mandado  justiciai 
todos,"  says  Alva  to  the  king,  in  a  letter  written  in  cipher,  April  13th, 
1563.     (Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  488.)     Not  one  escaped  1 
It  is  told  with  an  air  of  nonchalance  truly  appalling. 
I* 


202  REIGN  OF  TERROR. 

importunities." '3  He  was  not  too  weary,  however,  to 
go  on  with  the  bloody  work;  for  in  the  same  letter 
we  find  him  reckoning  that  three  hundred  heads  more 
must  fall  before  it  will  be  time  to  talk  of  a  general 
pardon.'" 

It  was  common,  says  an  old  chronicler,  to  see  thirty 
or  forty  persons  arrested  at  once.  The  wealthier  bur- 
ghers might  be  seen,  with  their  arms  pinioned  behind 
them,  dragged  at  the  horse's  tail  to  the  place  of  execu- 
tion.'s  The  poorer  sort  were  not  even  summoned  to 
take  their  trial  in  Brussels.  Their  cases  were  despatched 
at  once,  and  they  were  hung  up,  without  further  delay, 
in  the  city  or  in  the  suburbs.'* 

Brandt,  in  his  History  of  the  Reformation,  has  col- 
lected many  particulars  respecting  the  persecution, 
especially  in  his  own  province  of  Holland,  during  that 
"reign  of  terror."  Men  of  lower  consideration,  when 
dragged  to  prison,  were  often  cruelly  tortured  on  the 
rack,  to  extort  confessions  implicating  themselves  or 
their  friends.  The  modes  of  death  adjudged  by  the 
bloody  tribunal  were  various.  Some  were  beheaded 
with  the  sword, — a  distinction  reserved,  as  it  would 
seem,  for  persons  of  condition.     Some  were  sentenced 

'3  "  Que  cada  dia  me  quiebran  la  cabeza  con  dudas  de  que  si  el  que 
delinquio  desta  manera  meresce  la  muerte,  6  si  el  que  delinquio  desta 
otra  meresce  destierro,  que  no  me  dejan  vivir,  y  no  basta  con  ellos." 
Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  488. 

«♦  "  En  este  castigo  que  agora  se  hace  y  en  el  que  vendrd  despues 
de  Pascua  tengo  que  pasard  de  ochocientas  cabezas."     Ibid.,  p.  489. 

'5  "  Les  Bourgeois  qui  estoyCt  riches  de  quarante,  soixante,  et  cent 
mille  florins,  il  les  faysoit  attacher  \  la  queue  d'un  chev.il,  et  ainsi  les 
faysoit  trainer,  ayant  les  mains  liees  sur  le  dos,  jusques  au  lieu  ou  on 
les  debvoit  pendre."     Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  55. 

»6  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


TRIALS  AND  EXECUTIONS. 


203 


to  the  gibbet,  and  others  to  the  stake. '^  This  last  pun- 
ishment, the  most  dreadful  of  all,  was  confined  to  the 
greater  offenders  against  religion.  But  it  seems  to  have 
been  left  much  to  the  caprice  of  the  judges,  sometimes 
even  of  the  brutal  soldiery  who  superintended  the  exe- 
cutions. At  least  we  find  the  Spanish  soldiers,  on  one 
occasion,  in  their  righteous  indignation,  throwing  into 
the  flames  an  unhappy  Protestant  preacher  whom  the 
court  had  sentenced  to  the  gallows.'^ 

The  soldiers  of  Alva  were  many  of  them  veterans, 
who  had  borne  arms  against  the  Protestants  under 
Charles  the  Fifth, — comrades  of  the  men  who  at  that 
very  time  were  hunting  down  the  natives  of  the  New 
World  and  slaughtering  them  by  thousands  in  the  name 
of  religion.  With  them  the  sum  and  substance  of  re- 
ligion were  comprised  in  a  blind  faith  in  the  Romish 
Church,  and  in  uncompromising  hostility  to  the  heretic. 
The  life  of  the  heretic  was  the  most  acceptable  sacrifice 
that  could  be  offered  to  Jehovah.  With  hearts  thus 
seared  by  fanaticism  and  made  callous  by  long  famili- 
arity with  human  suffering,  they  were  the  very  ministers 
to  do  the  bidding  of  such  a  master  as  the  duke  of 
Alva. 

The  cruelty  of  the  persecutors  was  met  by  an  indom- 
itable courage  on  the  part  of  their  victims.  Most  of 
the  offences"  were,  in  some  way  or  other,  connected 
with  religion.  The  accused  were  preachers,  or  had 
aided  and  comforted  the  preachers,  or  had  attended 
their  services,  or  joined  the  consistories,  or  afforded 

•7  "  Ille  [Vargas]  promiscufe  laqueo,  igne,  homines  enecare."  Re- 
idanus,  Annales,  p.  6. 

'8  Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  vol.  i.  p.  274. 


204  REIGN  OF  TERROR. 

evidence,  in  some  form,  that  they  had  espoused  the 
damnable  doctrines  of  heresy.  It  is  precisely  in  such 
a  case,  where  men  are  called  to  suffer  for  conscience' 
sake,  that  they  are  prepared  to  endure  all, — to  die  in 
defence  of  their  opinions.  The  storm  of  persecution 
fell  on  persons  of  every  condition ;  men  and  women, 
the  young,  the  old,  the  infirm  and  helpless.  But  the 
weaker  the  party,  the  more  did  his  spirit  rise  to  endure 
his  sufferings.  Many  affecting  instances  are  recorded 
of  persons  who,  with  no  support  but  their  trust  in 
Heaven,  displayed .  the  most  heroic  fortitude  in  the 
presence  of  their  judges,  and,  by  the  boldness  with 
which  they  asserted  their  opinions,  seemed  even  to 
court  the  crown  of  martyrdom.  On  the  scaffold  and 
at  the  stake  this  intrepid  spirit  did  not  desert  them , 
and  the  testimony  they  bore  to  the  truth  of  the  cause 
for  which  they  suffered  had  such  an  effect  on  the  by- 
standers that  it  was  found  necessary  to  silence  them. 
A  cruel  device  for  more  effectually  accomplishing  this 
was  employed  by  the  officials.  The  tip  of  the  tongue 
was  seared  with  a  red-hot  iron,  and  the  swollen  mem- 
ber then  compressed  between  two  plates  of  metal 
screwed  fast  together.  Thus  gagged,  the  groans  of 
the  wretched  sufferer  found  vent  in  strange  sounds  that 
excited  the  brutal  merriment  of  his  tormentors.'' 

But  it  is  needless  to  dwell  longer  on  the"  miseries  en- 
dured by  the  people  of  the  Netherlands  in  this  season 
of  trial.  Yet,  if  the  cruelties  perpetrated  in  the  name 
of  religion  are  most  degrading  to  humanity,  they  must 

>9  "  Hark  how  they  singl"  exclaimed  a  friar  in  the  crowd;  "should 
they  not  be  made  to  dance  too?"  Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Lovr 
Countries,  vol.  i.  p.  275. 


TRIALS  AND  EXECUTIONS.  205 

be  allowed  to  have  called  forth  the  most  sublime  spec- 
tacle which  humanity  can  present, — that  of  the  martyr 
offering  up  his  life  on  the  altar  of  principle. 

It  is  difficult — in  fact,  from  the  data  in  my  possession, 
not  possible — to  calculate  the  number  of  those  who  fell 
by  the  hand  of  the  executioner  in  this  dismal  persecu- 
tion." The  number,  doubtless,  was  not  great  as  com- 
pared Avith  the  population  of  the  country, — not  so  great 
as  we  may  find  left,  almost  every  year  of  our  lives,  on 
a  single  battle-field.  When  the  forms  of  legal  proceed- 
ings are  maintained,  the  movements  of  justice — if  the 
name  can  be  so  profaned — are  comparatively  tardy.  It 
is  only,  as  in  the  French  Revolution,  when  thousands 
are  swept  down  by  the  cannon,  or  whole  cargoes  of 
wretched  victims  are  plunged  at  once  into  the  waters, 

=°  It  will  be  understood  that  I  am  speaking  of  the  period  embraced 
in  this  portion  of  the  history,  terminating  at  the  beginning  of  June, 
1568,  when  the  Council  of  Blood  had  been  in  active  operation  about 
four  months, — the  period  when  the  sword  of  legal  persecution  fell 
heaviest.  Alva,  in  the  letter  above  cited  to  Philip,  admits  eight  hun- 
dred— including  three  hundred  to  be  examined  after  Easter — as  the 
number  of  victims.  (Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  489.)  Viglius, 
in  a  letter  of  the  twenty-ninth  of  March,  says  fifteen  hundred  had 
been  already  cited  before  the  tribunal,  the  greater  part  of  whom — 
they  had  probably  fled  the  country — were  condemned  for  contumacy. 
(Epist.  ad  Hopperum,  p.  415.)  Grotius,  alluding  to  this  period, 
speaks  even  more  vaguely  of  the  multitude  of  the  victims,  as  innu- 
merable :  "  Stipatce  reis  custodias,  innumeri  mortales  necati :  ubique 
una  species  ut  captoe  civitatis."  (Annales,  p.  29.)  So  also  Hooft, 
cited  by  Brandt:  "The  Gallows,  the  Wheels,  Stakes,  and  Trees  in 
the  highways,  were  loaden  with  carcasses  or  limbs  of  such  as  had 
been  hanged,  beheaded,  or  roasted ;  so  that  the  air,  which  God  had 
made  for  respiration  of  the  living,  was  now  become  the  common 
grave  or  habitation  of  the  dead."  (Reformation  in  the  Low  Coun- 
tries, vol.  i.  p.  261.)  Language  like  this,  however  expressi".  e,  does 
little  for  statistics. 

Philip.— Vol..  71.  18 


2o6  REIGN  OF   TERROR. 

that  death  moves  on  with  the  gigantic  stride  of  pesti- 
lence and  war. 

But  the  amount  of  suffering  from  such  a  persecution 
is  not  to  be  estimated  merely  by  the  number  of  those 
who  have  actually  suffered  death,  when  the  fear  of 
death  hung  like  a  naked  sword  over  every  man's  head. 
Alva  had  expressed  to  Philip  the  wish  that  every  man, 
as  he  lay  down  at  night  or  as  he  rose  in  the  morning, 
"might  feel  that  his  house,  at  any  hour,  might  fall  and 
crush  him  !""  This  humane  wish  was  accomplished. 
Those  who  escaped  death  had  to  fear  a  fate  scarcely 
less  dreadful,  in  banishment  and  confiscation  of  prop- 
erty. The  persecution  very  soon  took  this  direction ; 
and  persecution  when  prompted  by  avarice  is  even 
more  odious  than  when  it  springs  from  fanaticism, 
which,  however  degrading  in  itself,  is  but  the  perver- 
sion of  the  religious  principle. 

Sentence  of  perpetual  exile  and  confiscation  was 
pronounced  at  once  against  all  who  fled  the  country.^ 
Even  the  dead  were  not  spared  j  as  is  shown  by  the 
process  instituted  against  the  marquis  of  Bergen  for 
the  confiscation  of  his  estates  on  the  charge  of  treason. 
That  nobleman  had  gone  with  Montigny,  as  the  reader 

"  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii.  p.  4. 

^  Sentences  passed  by  the  Council  of  Blood  against  a  great  number 
of  individuals — two  thousand  or  more — ^have  been  collected  in  a  little 
volume  (Sententien  en  Indagingen  van  Alba)  published  at  Amstei- 
dam  in  1735.  The  parties  condemned  were  for  the  most  part  natives 
of  Holland,  Zealand,  and  Utrecht.  They  would  seem,  with  very  few 
exceptions,  to  have  been  absentees,  and,  being  pronounced  guilty  of 
contumacy,  were  sentenced  to  banishment  and  the  confiscation  of 
their  property.  The  volume  furnishes  a  more  emphatic  commentary 
on  the  proceedings  of  Alva  than  any  thing  which  could  come  from  the 
pen  of  the  historian. 


STATE  r 

Los 

CONFISCA  TIONS.  207 

may  remember,  on  his  mission  to  Madrid,  where  he 
had  recently  died,  —  more  fortunate  than  his  com- 
panion, who  survived  for  a  darker  destiny.  The  duke's 
emissaries  were  everywhere  active  in  making  up  their 
inventories  of  the  property  of  the  suspected  parties. 
"I  am  going  to  arrest  some  of  the  richest  and  the 
worst  offenders,"  writes  Alva  to  his  master,  "and 
bring  them  to  a  pecuniary  composition."  ""^  He  shall 
next  proceed,  he  says,  against  the  delinquent  cities. 
In  this  way  a  round  sum  will  flow  into  his  majesty's 
coffers.'^  The  victims  of  this  class  were  so  numerous 
that  we  find  a  single  sentence  of  the  council  sometimes 
comprehending  eighty  or  a  hundred  individuals.  One 
before  me,  in  fewer  v.'ords  than  are  taken  up  by  the 
names  of  the  parties,  dooms  no  less  than  a  hundred 
and  thirty-five  inhabitants  of  Amsterdam  to  confisca- 
tion and  exile. ''s 

One  may  imagine  the  distress  brought  on  this  once 
flourishing  country  by  this  wholesale  proscription ;  for, 
besides  the  parties  directly  interested,  there  was  a  host 
of  others  incidentally  affected, — hospitals  and  charitable 
establishments,  widows  and  helpless  orphans,  now  re- 
duced to  want  by  the  failure  of  the  sources  which  sup- 
plied them  with  their  ordinary  subsistence.^    Slow  and 

^  "  Acabando  este  castigo  comenzare  d  prender  algiinos  particulares 
de  los  mas  culpados  y  mas  ricos  para  moverlos  a  que  vengan  i.  com- 
posicion."     Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  489. 

*4  "  Destos  tales  se  saquc  todo  el  golpe  de  dinero  que  sea  possible." 
Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 

"5  Sententien  van  Alva,  bl.  122-124. 

=*  "  Combien  d'Hospitaux,  Vefues,  et  Orphelins,  estoyent  par  ce 
moyen  prives  de  leur  rentes,  et  moyes  de  vivre  1"  Meteren,  Hist,  des 
Pays-Bas,  fol.  55. 


2o8  REIGN  OF  TERROR. 

sparing  must  have  been  the  justice  doled  out  to  such 
impotent  creditor^,  when  they  preferred  their  claims 
to  a  tribunal  like  the  Council  of  Blood  !  The  effect 
was  soon  visible  in  the  decay  of  trade  and  the  rapid 
depopulation  of  the  towns.  Notwithstanding  the 
dreadful  penalties  denounced  against  fugitives,  great 
numbers,  especially  from  the  border  states,  contrived 
to  make  their  escape.  The  neighboring  districts  of 
Germany  opened  their  arms  to  the  wanderers;  and 
many  a  wretched  exile  from  the  northern  provinces, 
flying  across  the  frozen  waters  of  the  Zuyder  Zee, 
found  refuge  within  the  hospitable  walls  of  Embden.'^ 
Even  in  an  inland  city  like  Ghent,  half  the  houses,  if 
we  may  credit  the  historian,  were  abandoned.^  Not  a 
family  was  there,  he  says,  but  some  of  its  members  had 
tasted  the  bitterness  of  exile  or  of  death. ^'  "The  fury 
of  persecution,"  writes  the  prince  of  Orange,  "spreads 
such  horror  throughout  the  nation  that  thousands,  and 
among  them  some  of  the  principal  Papists,  have  fled  a 
country  where  tyranny  seems  to  be  directed  against 
all,  without  distinction  of  faith." 3° 

Yet  in  a  financial  point  of  view  the  results  did  not 
keep  pace  with  Alva's  wishes.     Notwithstanding  the 

=7  Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  vol.  i.  p.  265. 

=8  Vandervynckt,  Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  p.  247. 

=9  Ibid.,  p.  245. 

30  "Par  laquelle  auparavant  jamais  ouye  tyrannie  et  persecution, 
ledict  due  d'Albe  a  cause  partout  telle  peur,  que  aulcuns  milles 
personnes,  et  mesmement  ceulx  estans  principaul.K  papistes,  se  sont 
retire/,  en  dedens  peu  de  temps  hors  les  Pays-Bas,  en  consideration 
que  ceste  tyrannie  s'exerce  contre  tous,  sans  aulcune  distinction  de 
la  religion."  Correspondance  de  Guillaume  le  Taciturne,  torn,  iii, 
p.  14.  / 


CONFISCA  TIONS. 


209 


large  amount  of  the  confiscations,  the  proceeds,  as  he 
complains  to  Philip,  were  absorbed  in  so  many  ways, 
especially  by  the  peculation  of  his  agents,  that  he 
doubted  whether  the  expense  would  not  come  to  more 
than  the  profits  !  ^^  He  was  equally  dissatisfied  with 
the  conduct  of  other  functionaries.  The  commissioners 
sent  into  the  provinces,  instead  of  using  their  efforts  to 
detect  the  guilty,  seemed  disposed,  he  said,  rather  to 
conceal  them.  Even  the  members  of  the  Council  of 
Troubles  manifested  so  much  apathy  in  their  vocation 
as  to  give  him  more  annoyance  than  the  delinquents 
themselves  !  ^^  The  only  person  who  showed  any  zeal 
in  the  service  was  Vargas.  He  was  worth  all  the  others 
of  the  council  put  together. ^^  The  duke  might  have 
excepted  from  this  sweeping  condemnation  Hessels, 
the  lawyer  of  Ghent,  if  the  rumors  concerning  him 
were  true.  This  worthy  councillor,  it  is  said,  would 
sometimes  fall  asleep  in  his  chair,  worn  out  by  the 
fatigue  of  trying  causes  and  signing  death-warrants. 
In  this  state,  when  suddenly  called  on  to  pronounce 
the  doom  of  the  prisoner,  he  would  cry  out,  half 
awake,  and  rubbing  his  eyes,  '■^Ad patibulmn!  Ad pati- 
bulum  .''" — "  To  the  gallows  !  To  the  gallows  !"^ 

31  "  Que  temo  no  venga  d  ser  mayor  la  espesa  de  los  ministros  que 
cl  util  que  dello  se  sacara."     Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  495. 

3=!  "  El  tribunal  todo  que  hice  para  estas  cosas  no  solamente  no  me 
ayuda,  pero  estorbame  tanto  que  tengo  mas  que  hacer  con  ellos  que 
con  los  delincuentes."     Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 

33  Vargas  passed  as  summary  a  judgment  on  the  people  of  the 
Netherlands  as  that  imputed  to  the  Inquisition,  condensing  it  into 
a  memorable  sentence,  much  admired  for  its  Latinity:  "  Hceretici 
fraxerunt  templa,  boni  nihil  faxertint  contra,  irgo  dcbent  omnes  pati- 
bulare."     Reidanus,  Annales,  p.  5. 

34  "  Quand  on  l\5veilloit  pour  dire  son  avis,  il  disoit  tout  endormi, 

18* 


2IO  REIGN  OF   TERROR. 

But  Vargas  was  after  the  duke's  own  heart.  Alva 
was  never  weary  of  commending  his  follower  to  the 
king.  He  besought  Philip  to  interpose  in  his  behalf, 
and  cause  three  suits  which  had  been  brought  against 
that  functionary  to  be  suspended  during  his  absence 
from  Spain.  The  king  accordingly  addressed  the  judge 
on  the  subject.  But  the  magistrate  (his  name  should 
have  been  preserved)  had  the  independence  to  reply 
that  "justice  must  take  its  course,  and  could  not  be 
suspended  from  favor  to  any  one."  "Nor  would  I 
have  it  so,"  answered  Philip  (it  is  the  king  who  tells 
it):  "I  would  do  only  what  is  possible  to  save  the 
interests  of  Vargas  from  suffering  by  his  absence."  In 
conclusion,  he  tells  the  duke  that  Vargas  should  give 
no  heed  to  what  is  said  of  the  suits,  since  he  must  be 
assured,  after  the  letter  he  has  received  under  the  royal 
hand,  that  his  sovereign  fully  approves  his  conduct. ^^ 
But  if  Vargas,  by  his  unscrupulous  devotion  to  the 
cause,  won  the  confidence  of  his  employers,  he  in- 
curred, on  the  other  hand,  the  unmitigated  hatred  of 
the  people, — a  hatred  deeper,  it  would  almost  seem, 
than  even  that  which  attached  to  Alva ;  owing  perhaps 
to  the  circumstance  that,  as  the  instrument  for  the 
execution  of  the  duke's  measures,  Vargas  was  brought 
more  immediately  in  contact  with  the  people  than  the 
duke  himself. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  many,  especially  of  those 
who  dwelt  in  the  border  provinces,  escaped  the  storm 

en  se  frottant  Ics  yeux,  ad  patibulum,  ad  patibuhim,  c'est-Jl-dire,  au 
gibet,  au  gibet."     Aub6ri,  M^m.  pour  servir  \  I'Hist.  de  Hollande, 

p.  22. 

35  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii.  p.  12. 


RESULTS.  2H 

of  persecution  by  voluntary  exile.  The  suspected 
parties  would  seem  to  have  received,  not  unfrequently, 
kindly  intimations  from  the  local  magistrates  of  the 
fate  that  menaced  them.^*  Others,  who  lived  in  the 
interior,  were  driven  to  more  desperate  courses.  They 
banded  together  in  considerable  numbers,  under  the 
name  of  the  "wild  Gueux,^^ — "Giieiix  sauvages,^^ — 
and  took  refuge  in  the  forests,  particularly  of  West 
Flanders.  Thence  they  sallied  forth,  fell  ujDon  unsus- 
pecting travellers,  especially  the  monks  and  ecclesi- 
astics, whom  they  robbed,  and  sometimes  murdered. 
Occasionally  they  were  so  bold  as  to  invade  the 
monasteries  and  churches,  stripping  them  of  their 
rich  ornaments,  their  plate  and  other  valuables,  when, 
loaded  with  booty,  they  hurried  back  to  their  fast- 
nesses. The  evil  proceeded  to  such  a  length  that  the 
governor-general  was  obliged  to  order  out  a  strong 
force  to  exterminate  the  banditti,  while  at  the  same 
time  he  published  an  edict  declaring  that  every  district 
should  be  held  responsible  for  the  damage  done  to 
property  within  its  limits  by  these  marauders. ^^ 

It  might  be  supposed  that,  under  the  general  feeling 
of  resentment  provoked  by  Alva's  cruel  policy,  his  life 
would  have  been  in  constant  danger  from  the  hand 
of  the  assassin.  Once,  indeed,  he  had  nearly  fallen  a 
victim  to  a  conspiracy  headed  by  two  brothers,  men  of 
good  family  in  Flanders,  who  formed  a  plan  to  kill  him 
while  attending  mass  at  an  abbey  in  the  neighborhood 

36  Brandt,  Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,  vol.  i.  pp.  263,  264, 
et  alibi. 

37  Grotius,  Annales,  p.  29. — Vandervynckt,  Troubles  des  Pays-Bas, 
torn.  ii.  p.  450. 


212  REIGN  OF  TERROR. 

of  Brussels. 3^  But  Alva  was  not  destined  to  fall  by  the 
hand  of  violence. 

We  may  well  believe  that  wise  and  temperate  men,  like 
Viglius,  condemned  the  duke's  proceedings  as  no  less 
impolitic  than  cruel.  That  this  veteran  councillor  did  so 
is  apparent  from  his  confidential  letters,  though  he  was 
too  prudent  to  expose  himself  to  Alva's  enmity  by  openly 
avowing  it.^'  There  were  others,  however, — the  princes 
of  Germany,  in  particular, — who  had  no  such  reasons 
for  dissembling,  and  who  carried  their  remonstrances  to 
a  higher  tribunal  than  that  of  the  governor-general. 

On  the  second  of  March,  1568,  the  emperor  Maxi- 
milian, in  the  name  of  the  electors,  addressed  a  letter 
to  Philip,  in  behalf  of  his  oppressed  subjects  in  the 
Netherlands.  He  reminded  the  king  that  he  had 
already  more  than  once,  and  in  most  affectionate 
terms,  interceded  with  him  for  a  milder  and  more 
merciful  policy  towards  his  Flemish  subjects.  He 
entreated  his  royal  kinsman  to  reflect  whether  it  were 
not  better  to  insure  the  tranquillity  of  the  state  by 
winning  the  hearts  of  his  people  than  by  excessive 
rigor  to  drive  them  to  extremity.  And  he  concluded 
by  intimating  that,  as  a  member  of  the  Germanic 
body,  the  Netherlands  had  a  right  to  be  dealt  with  in 
that  spirit  of  clemency  which  was  conformable  to  the 
constitutions  of  the  empire. •*" 

Although  neither  the  arguments  nor  the  importunity 

38  Campana,  Guerra  de  Fiandra,  fol.  38. — Ferreras,  Hist.  d'Espagne, 
torn.  ix.  p.  555. 

39  "  Valde  optaremus  tandem  aliquam  funesti  hujus  temporis,  crimi- 
naliumque  processuum  finem,  qui  non  populum  tantum  nostrum,  sed 
vicinos  omnes  exasperant."     Viglii  Epist.  ad  Hopperum,  p.  482. 

4°  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii.  p.  15. 


RESULTS. 


213 


of  Maximilian  had  poAver  to  shake  the  constancy  of 
Philip,  he  did  not  refuse  to  enter  into  some  explana- 
tion, if  not  \ indication,  of  his  conduct.  "What  I 
have  done,"  he  replied,  "has  been  for  the  repose  of 
the  provinces  and  for  the  defence  of  the  Catholic 
faith.  If  I  had  respected  justice  less,  I  should  have 
despatched  the  whole  business  in  a  single  day.  No 
one  acquainted  with  the  state  of  affairs  will  find  reason 
to  censure  my  severity.  Nor  would  I  do  otherwise 
than  I  have  done,  though  I  should  risk  the  sovereignty 
of  the  Netherlands, — no,  though  the  world  should  fall 
in  ruins  around  me  ! "  ■*'  Such  a  reply  effectually  closed 
the  correspondence. 

The  wretched  people  of  the  Netherlands,  mean- 
while, now  looked  to  the  prince  of  Orange  as  the 
only  refuge  left  them,  under  Providence.  Those  who 
fled  the  country,  especially  persons  of  higher  condition, 
gathered  round  his  little  court  at  Dillenburg,  where 
they  were  eagerly  devising  plans  for  the  best  means  of 
restoring  freedom  to  their  country.  They  brought 
with  them  repeated  invitations  from  their  countrymen 
to  William  that  he  would  take  up  arms  in  their  defence. 
The  Protestants  of  Antwerp,  in  particular,  promised 
that,  if  he  would  raise  funds  by  coining  his  plate,  they 
would  agree  to  pay  him  double  the  value  of  it.'^ 

41  "Y  quando  por  esta  causa  se  aventurassen  los  Estados,  y  me 
viniesse  d  caer  el  mundo  encima."  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II., 
tom.ii.  p.  27. — Philip  seems  to  have  put  himself  in  the  attitude  of  the 
"  justum  et  tenacem"  of  Horace.  His  concluding  hyperbole  is  almost 
a  literal  version  of  the  Roman  bard  : 

"  Si  fractus  illabatur  orbis, 
Impavidum  ferient  ruinae," 

4=  Archives  de  la  Maison  d' Orange-Nassau,  Supplement,  p.  87. 


214  REIGN  OF  TERROR. 

William  had  no  wish  nearer  his  heart  than  that  of 
assuming  the  enterprise.  But  he  knew  the  difficulties 
that  lay  in  the  way,  and,  like  a  wise  man,  he  was  not 
disposed  to  enter  on  it  till  he  saw  the  means  of  carrying 
it  through  successfully..  To  the  citizens  of  Antwerp  he 
answered  that  not  only  would  he  devote  his  plate,  but 
his  person  and  all  that  he  possessed,  most  willingly,  for 
the  freedom  of  religion  and  of  his  country. ^^  But  the 
expenses  of  raising  a  force  were  great, — at  the  very 
least,  six  hundred  thousand  florins ;  nor  could  he  now 
nndertake  to  procure  that  amount,  unless  some  of  the 
principal  merchants,  whom  he  named,  would  consent 
to  remain  with  him  as  security.'" 

In  the  mean  time  he  was  carrying  on  an  extensive 
correspondence  with  the  German  princes,  with  the 
leaders  of  the  Huguenot  party  in  France,  and  even 
with  the  English  government, — endeavoring  to  pro- 
pitiate them  to  the  cause,  as  one  in  which  every 
Protestant  had  an  interest.  From  the  elector  of 
Saxony  and  the  landgrave  of  Hesse  he  received  assu- 
rances of  aid.  Considerable  sums  seem  to  have  been 
secretly  remitted  from  the  principal  towns  in  the  Low 
Countries ;  while  Culemborg,  Hoogstraten,  Louis  of 
Nassau,  and  the  other  great  lords  who  shared  his  exile, 
contributed  as  largely  as  their  dilapidated  fortunes 
would  allow. ''5     The  prince  himself  parted  with  his 

43  "  II  n'est  pas  seulement  content  de  s'employer  'k  la  necessite  pre- 
sente  par  le  moyen  par  eulx  propose  touchant  sa  vasselle,  ains  de  sa 
propre  personne,  et  de  tout  ce  que  reste  en  son  pouv|»ir."  Archives 
de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  Supplement,  p.  88. 

44  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 

45  The  funds  were  chiefly  furnished,  as  it  would  seem,  by  Antwerp, 
and  the  great  towns  of  Holland,  Zealand,  Friesland,  and  Groningen, 


ORANGE  ASSEMBLES  AN  ARMY.  215 

most  precious  effects,  pawning  his  jewels,  and  sending 
his  plate  to  tlie  mint, — "the  ornaments  of  a  palace," 
exclaims  an  old  writer,  "but  yielding  little  for  the 
necessities  of  war."  ■»* 

By  these  sacrifices  a  considerable  force  was  assembled 
before  the  end  of  April,  consisting  of  the  most  irregu- 
lar and  incongruous  materials.  There  were  German 
mercenaries,  who  had  no  interest  in  the  cause  beyond 
their  pay ;  Huguenots  from  France,  who  brought  into 
the  field  a  hatred  of  the  Roman  Catholics  which  made 
them  little  welcome,  even  as  allies,  to  a  large  portion 
of  the  Netherlands;  and  lastly,  exiles  from  the  Nether- 
lands,— the  only  men  worthy  of  the  struggle, — who 
held  life  cheap  in  comparison  with  the  great  cause  to 
which  they  devoted  it.  But  these,  however  strong  in 
their  patriotism,  were  for  the  most  part  simple  burghers, 
untrained  to  arms,  and  ill  fitted  to  cope  with  the  hardy 
veterans  of  Castile. 

Before  completing  his  levies,  the  prince  of  Orange, 
at  the  suggestion  of  his  friend  the  landgrave  of  Hesse, 
prepared  and  published  a  document,  known  as  his 
"Justification,"  in  which  he  vindicated  himself  and 
his  cause  from  the  charges  of  Alva.  He  threw  the 
original  blame  of  the  troubles  on  Granvelle,  denied 

the  quarter  of  the  country  where  the  spirit  of  independence  was 
always  high.  The  noble  exiles  with  William  contributed  half  the 
amount  raised.  This  information  was  given  to  Alva  by  Villers,  one 
of  the  banished  lords,  after  he  had  fallen  into  the  duke's  hands  in  a 
disastrous  affair,  of  which  some  account  will  be  given  in  the  present 
chapter.     Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  tom.  ii.  p.  27. 

46  "  Ipse  Arausionensis  monilia,  vasa  argentea,  tapetes,  castera 
supellectilis  divendit,  digna  regio  palatio  ornamenta,  sed  exigui  ad 
bellum  momenti."     Reidanus,  Annales,  p.  6. 


2i6  REIGN  OF   TERROR. 

having  planned  or  even  promoted  the  confederacy  of 
the  nobles,  and  treated  with  scorn  the  charge  of 
■having,  from  motives  of  criminal  ambition,  fomented 
rebellion  in  a  country  where  he  had  larger  interests  at 
stake  than  almost  any  other  inhabitant.  He  touched 
on  his  own  services,  as  well  as  those  of  his  ancestors, 
and  the  ingratitude  with  which  they  had  been  requited 
by  the  throne.  And  in  conclusion  he  prayed  that  his 
majesty  might  at  length  open  his  eyes  to  the  innocence 
of  his  persecuted  subjects,  and  that  it  might  be  made 
apparent  to  the  world  that  the  wrongs  inflicted  on  them 
had  come  from  evil  counsellors  rather  than  himself.*' 
The  plan  of  the  campaign  was  to  distract  the  duke's 

47  The  "Justification"  has  been  very  commonly  attributed  to  the 
pen  of  the  learned  Languet,  who  was  much  in  William's  confidence, 
and  is  known  to  have  been  with  him  at  this  time.  But  William  was 
too  practised  a  writer,  as  Groen  well  suggests,  to  make  it  probable 
that  he  would  trust  the  composition  of  a  paper  of  such  moment  to 
any  hand  but  his  own.  It  is  very  likely  that  lie  submitted. his  own 
draft  to  the  revision  of  Languet,  whose  political  sagacity  he  well 
understood.  And  this  is  the  most  that  can  be  fairly  inferred  from 
Languet's  own  account  of  the  matter :  "  Fui  Dillemburgi  per  duo- 
decim  et  tredecim  dies,  ubi  Princeps  Orangiae  mihi  et  aliquot  aliis 
curavit  prolixe  explicari  causas  et  initia  tumultuum  in  inferiore  Ger- 
mania  et  suam  responsionem  ad  accusationes  Albani."  It  fared  with 
the  prince's  "Justification"  as  it  did  with  the  famous  "  Farewell  Ad- 
dress" of  Washington,  so  often  attributed  to  another  pen  than  his, 
but  which,  however  much  it  may  have  been  benefited  by  the  counsels 
and  corrections  of  others,  bears  on  every  page  unequivocal  marks  of 
its  genuineness.  The  "  Justification"  called  out  several  answers  from 
the  opposite  party.  Among  them  were  two  by  Vargas  and  Del  Rio. 
But  in  the  judgment  of  Viglius — ^whose  bias  certainly  did  not  lie  on 
William's  side — these  answers  were  a  failure.  See  his  letter  to  Hop- 
per (Epist.  ad  Hopperum,  p.  458).  The  reader  will  find  a  full  discus- 
sion of  the  matter  by  Groen,  in  the  Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange- 
Nassau,  tom.  iii.  p.  187. 


ORANGE  ASSEMBLES  AN  ARMY.  217 

attention,  and,  if  possible,  create  a  general  rising  in 
the  country,  by  assailing  it  on  three  several  points  at 
once.  A  Huguenot  corps,  under  an  adventurer  named 
Cocqueville,  was  to  operate  against  Artois ;  Hoogstra- 
ten,  with  the  lord  of  Villers,  and  others  of  the  ban- 
ished nobles,  was  to  penetrate  the  country  in  a  central 
direction,  through  Brabant ;  while  William's  brothers, 
the  Counts  Louis  and  Adolphus,  at  the  head  of  a  force 
partly  Flemish,  partly  German,  were  to  carry  the  war 
over  the  northern  borders,  into  Groningen.  The  prince 
himself,  who  established  his  head-quarters  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Cleves,  was  busy  in  assembling  a  force  pre- 
pared to  support  any  one  of  the  divisions,  as  occasion 
might  require. 

It  was  the  latter  part  of  April  before  Hoogstraten 
and  Louis  took  the  field.  The  Huguenots  were  still 
later ;  and  William  met  with  difficulties  which  greatly 
retarded  the  formation  of  his  own  corps.  The  great 
difficulty — one  which  threatened  to  defeat  the  enter- 
prise at  its  commencement — was  the  want  of  money, 
equally  felt  in  raising  troops  and  in  enforcing  discipline 
among  them  when  they  were  raised.  "  If  you  have 
any  love  for  me,"  he  writes  to  his  friend,  the  "wise" 
landgrave  of  Hesse,  "  I  beseech  you  to  aid  me  privately 
with  a  sum  sufficient  to  meet  the  pay  of  the  troops  for 
the  first  month.  Without  this  I  shall  be  in  danger  of 
failing  in  my  engagements, — to  me  worse  than  death ; 
to  say  nothing  of  the  ruin  which  such  a  failure  must 
bring  on  our  credit  and  on  the  cause."  ^*    We  are  con- 

48  "  En  quoy  ne  gist  pas  seulement  le  bien  de  ce  faict,  mais  aussi 
mon  honeur  et  reputation,  pour  avoir  promis  aus  gens  de  guerre  leur 
paier  le  diet  mois,  et  que  j'aymerois  mieulx  morir  que  les  faillir  ^  ma 
Philip. — Vol.  II. — K  19 


2i8  REIGN  OF   TERROR. 

stantly  reminded,  in  the  career  of  the  prince  of  Orange, 
of  the  embarrassments  under  which  our  own  Washing- 
ton labored  in  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  and  of  the 
patience  and  unconquerable  spirit  which  enabled  him 
to  surmount  them. 

Little  need  be  said  of  two  of  the  expeditions,  which 
were  failures.  Hoogstraten  had  scarcely  crossed  the 
frontier,  towards  the  end  of  April,  when  he  was  met 
by  Alva's  trusty  lieutenant,  Sancho  Davila,  and  beaten, 
with  considerable  loss.  Villers  and  some  others  of  the 
rebel  lords,  made  prisoners,  escaped  the  sword  of  the 
enemy  in  the  field,  to  fall  by  that  of  the  executioner  in 
Brussels.  Hoogstraten,  with  the  remnant  of  his  forces, 
made  good  his  retreat,  and  effected  a  junction  with  the 
prince  of  Orange.  ■♦^ 

Cocqueville  met  with  a  worse  fate.  A  detachment 
of  French  troops  was  sent  against  him  by  Charles  the 
Ninth,  who  thus  requited  the  service  of  the  same  kind 
he  had  lately  received  from  the  duke  of  Alva.  On  the 
approach  of  their  countrymen,  the  Huguenots  basely 
laid  down  their  arms.  Cocqueville  and  his  principal 
officers  were  surrounded,  made  prisoners,  and  perished 
ignominiously  on  the  scaffold. 5° 

The  enterprise  of  Louis  of  Nassau  was  attended  with 
different  results.  Yet  after  he  had  penetrated  into 
Groningen  he  was  sorely  embarrassed  by  the  mutinous 
spirit  of  the  German  mercenaries.     The  province  was 

promesse."  Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  Supplemeni, 
p.  89. 

•♦9  Mendoza,  Comentarios,  p.  42,  et  seq. — Cornejo,  Disension  de 
Flandes,  p.  63. 

50  Metcren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  56. — De  Thou,  Hist,  univer- 
selle,  torn.  v.  p.  443. 


BATTLE    OF  IIEYLIGERLEE. 


219 


defended  by  Count  Arembcrg,  its  governor,  a  brave 
old  officer,  who  had  studied  the  art  of  war  under 
Charles  the  Fifth ;  one  of  those  models  of  chivalry  on 
whom  the  men  of  a  younger  generation  are  ambitious 
to  form  themselves.  He  had  been  employed  on  many 
distinguished  services,  and  there  were  few  men  at  the 
court  of  Brussels  who  enjoyed  higher  consideration 
under  both  Philip  and  his  father.  The  strength  of  his 
forces  lay  in  his  Spanish  infantry.  He  was  deficient  in 
cavalry,  but  was  soon  to  be  reinforced  by  a  body  of 
horse  under  Count  Megen,  who  was  a  day's  march  in 
his  rear. 

Aremberg  soon  came  in  sight  of  Louis,  who  was  less 
troubled  by  the  presence  of  his  enemy  than  by  the  dis- 
orderly conduct  of  his  German  soldiers,  clamorous  for 
their  pay.  Doubtful  of  his  men,  Louis  declined  to 
give  battle  to  a  foe  so  far  superior  to  him  in  every  thing 
but  numbers.  He  accordingly  established  himself  in 
an  uncommonly  strong  position,  which  the  nature  of 
the  ground  fortunately  afforded.  In  his  rear,  protected 
by  a  thick  wood,  stood  the  convent  of  Heyligerlee, 
which  gave  its  name  to  the  battle.  In  front  the  land 
sloped  towards  an  extensive  morass.  *  His  infantry,  on 
the  left,  was  partly  screened  by  a  hill  from  the  enemy's 
fire ;  and  on  the  right  he  stationed  his  cavalry,  under 
the  command  of  his  brother  Adolphus,  who  was  to  fall 
on  the  enemy's  flank,  should  they  be  hardy  enough  to 
give  battle. 

But  Aremberg  was  too  well  acquainted  with  the  diffi- 
culties of  the  ground  to  risk  an  engagement,  at  least 
till  he  was  strengthened  by  the  reinforcement  under 
Megen.     Unfortunately,  the  Spanish   infantry,  accus- 


2  20  REIGN  OF  TERROR. 

tomed  to  victory,  and  feeling  a  contempt  for  the  dis- 
orderly levies  opposed  to  them,  loudly  called  to  be  led 
against  the  heretics.  In  vain  their  more  prudent  gen- 
eral persisted  in  his  plan.  They  chafed  at  the  delay, 
refusing  to  a  Flemish  commander  the  obedience  which 
they  might  probably  have  paid  to  one  of  their  own  na- 
tion. They  openly  accused  him  of  treachery,  and  of 
having  an  understanding  with  his  countrymen  in  the 
enemy's  camp.  Stung  by  their  reproaches,  Aremberg 
had  the  imprudence  to  do  what  more  than  one  brave 
man  has  been  led  to  do,  both  before  and  since  :  he  sur- 
rendered his  own  judgment  to  the  importunities  of  his 
soldiers.  Crying  out  that  "they  should  soon  see  if  he 
were  a  traitor,"  s' he  put  himself  at  the  head  of  his 
little  army  and  marched  against  the  enemy.  His  artil- 
lery, meanwhile,  which  he  had  posted  on  his  right, 
opened  a  brisk  fire  on  Louis's  left  wing,  where,  owing 
to  the  nature  of  the  ground,  it  did  little  execution. 

Under  cover  of  this  fire  the  main  body  of  the  Span- 
ish infantry  moved  forward ;  but,  as  their  commander 
had  foreseen,  the  men  soon  became  entangled  in  the 
morass ;  their  ranks  were  thrown  into  disorder ;  and 
when  at  length,  after  long  and  painful  efforts,  they 
emerged  on  the  firm  ground,  they  were  more  spent 
with  toil  than  they  would  have  been  after  a  hard  day's 
march.  Thus  jaded,  and  sadly  in  disarray,  they  were 
at  once  assailed  in  front  by  an  enemy  who,  conscious 

5'  "  Ains,  comme  gens  predestinez  "k  leur  malheur  et  de  leur  general, 
crierent  plus  que  dcvant  centre  lay  jusques  k  I'appeler  traistre,  et 
qu'il  s'cntendoit  avec  les  ennemis.  Luy,  qui  estoit  tout  noble  et 
courageux,  leur  dit:  '  Ouy,  je  vous  monstreray  si  je  le  suis."  "  Bran- 
t6me,  CEuvres,  torn.  i.  p.  382. 


BATTLE    OF  HEYLIGERLEE.  221 

of  his  o-\vn  advantage,  was  all  fresh  and  hot  for  action. 
Not\vithstanding  their  distressed  condition,  Aremberg's 
soldiers  maintained  their  ground  for  some  time,  like 
men  unaccustomed  to  defeat.  At  length  Louis  ordered 
the  cavalry  on  his  right  to  charge  Aremberg's  flank. 
This  unexpected  movement,  occurring  at  a  critical  mo- 
ment, decided  the  day.  Assailed  in  front  and  in  flank, 
hemmed  in  by  the  fatal  morass  in  the  rear,  the  Span- 
iards were  thrown  into  utter  confusion.  In  vain  their 
gallant  leader,  proof  against  danger,  though  not  against 
the  taunts  of  his  followers,  endeavored  to  rally  them. 
His  horse  was  killed  under  him ;  and,  as  he  was 
mounting  another,  he  received  a  shot  from  a  foot- 
soldier,  and  fell  mortally  wounded  from  his  saddle. s" 
The  rout  now  became  general.  Some  took  to  the 
morass,  and  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  victors.  Some 
succeeded  in  cutting  their  way  through  the  ranks  of 
their  assailants,  while  many  more  lost  their  lives  in  the 
attempt.  The  ground  was  covered  with  the  wounded 
and  the  dead.     The  victory  was  complete. 

Sixteen  hundred  of  the  enemy  were  left  on  that  fatal 
field.  In  the  imagination  of  the  exile  thirsting  for 
vengeance,  it  might  serve  in  some  degree  to  balance 

5«  Brantome  has  given  us  the  portrait  of  this  Flemish  nobleman, 
with  whom  he  became  acquainted  on  his  visit  to  Paris,  when  sent 
thither  by  Alva  to  relieve  the  French  monarch.  The  chivalrous  old 
writer  dwells  on  the  personal  appearance  of  Aremberg,  his  noble  mien 
and  high-bred  courtesy,  which  made  him  a  favorite  with  the  dames  of 
the  royal  circle:  "  Un  tres  beau  et  tres  agreable  seigneur,  surtout  de 
fort  grande  et  haute  taille  et  de  tres  belle  apparence."  (QEuvres,  torn. 
i.  p.  383.)  Nor  does  he  omit  to  mention,  among  other  accomplish- 
ments, the  fluency  with  which  he  could  speak  French  and  several  other 
languages.     Ibid.,  p.  384. 

19* 


2  22  REIGN  OF  TERROR. 

the  bloody  roll  of  victims  whom  the  pitiless  duke  had 
sent  to  their  account.  Nine  pieces  of  artillery,  with  a 
large  quantity  of  ammunition  and  military  stores,  a 
rich  service  of  plate  belonging  to  Aremberg,  and  a 
considerable  sum  of  money  lately  received  by  him  to 
pay  the  arrears  of  the  soldiers,  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  patriots.  Yet  as  serious  a  loss  as  any  inflicted  on 
the  Spaniards  was  that  of  their  brave  commander. 
His  corpse,  disfigured  by  wounds,  was  recognized, 
amid  a  heap  of  the  slain,  by  the  insignia  of  the 
Golden  Fleece,  which  he  wore  round  his  neck,  and 
which  Louis  sent  to  the  prince,  his  brother,  as  a  proud 
trophy  of  his  victory.  ^3  The  joy  of  the  conquerors  was 
dimmed  by  one  mournful  event,  the  death  of  Count 
Adolphus  of  Nassau,  who  fell,  bravely  fighting,  at  the 
head  of  his  troops,  one  of  the  first  victims  in  the  war  of 
the  revolution.  He  was  a  younger  brother  of  William, 
only  twenty-seven  years  of  age.  But  he  had  already 
given  promise  of  those  heroic  qualities  which  proved 
him  worthy  of  the  generous  race  from  which  he  sprang.^ 
The  battle  was  fought  on  the  twenty-third  of  May, 
1568.  On  the  day  following.  Count  Megen  arrived 
with  a  reinforcement, — too  late  to  secure  the  victory, 
but  not,  as  it  proved,  too  late  to  snatch  the  fruits  of  it 
from  the  victors.     By  a  rapid  movement,  he  succeeded 

53  See  a  letter  written,  as  seems  probable,  by  a  councillor  of  William 
to  the  elector  of  Saxony,  the  week  after  the  battle.  Archives  de  la 
Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  torn.  iii.  p.  221. 

5-t  It  is  a  common  repbrt  of  historians  that  Adolphus  and  Aremberg 
met  in  single  combat  in  the  thick  of  the  fight  and  fell  by  each  other's 
hands.  See  Cornejo,  Disension  de  Flandes,  fol.  63 ;  Strada,  De  Bello 
Belgico,  tom.  i.  p.  282 ;  et  al.  An  incident  so  romantic  found  easy 
credit  in  a  romantic  age. 


A L  FA'S  PROCEEDINGS. 


223 


in  throwing  himself  into  the  town  of  Groningen,  and 
thus  saved  that  important  place  from  falling  into  the 
hands  of  tlie  i^atriots.^^ 

The  tidings  of  the  battle  of  Heyligerlee  caused  a 
great  sensation  through  the  country.  While  it  raised 
the  hopes  of  the  malecontents,  it  filled  the  duke  of 
Alva  with  indignation, — the  greater,  as  he  perceived 
that  the  loss  of  the  battle  was  to  be  referred  mainly 
to  the  misconduct  of  his  own  soldiers.  He  saw  with 
alarm  the  disastrous  effect  likely  to  be  produced  by  so 
brilliant  a  success  on  the  part  of  the  rebels  in  the  very 
beginning  of  the  struggle.  The  hardy  men  of  Fries- 
land  would  rise  to  assert  their  independence.  The 
prince  of  Orange,  with  his  German  levies,  would  unite 
with  his  victorious  brother,  and,  aided  by  the  inhabit- 
ants, would  be  in  condition  to  make  formidable  head 
against  any  force  that  Alva  could  muster.  It  was  an 
important  crisis,  and  called  for  prompt  and  decisive 
action.  The  duke,  with  his  usual  energy,  determined 
to  employ  no  agent  here,  but  to  take  the  affair  into  his 

SS  The  accounts  of  the  battle  of  Heyhgerlee,  given  somewhat  con- 
fusedly, maybe  found  in  Herrera,  Hist,  del  Mundo,  torn.  i.  p.  688,  at 
seq., — Campana,  Guerra  di  Fiandra  (Vicenza,  1602),  p.  42,  etseq., — 
Mendoza,  Comentarios  (Madrid,  1592),  p.  43,  et  seq., — Comejo,  Di- 
sension  de  Flandes,  fol.  66,  et  seq., — Carnero,  Guerras  de  Flandes 
(Brusselas,  1625),  p.  24,  et  seq., — Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p. 
382,  et  seq., — Bentivoglio,  Guerra  di  Fiandra,  p.  192,  etseq. — The  last 
writer  tells  us  he  had  heard  the  story  more  than  once  from  the  son 
and  heir  of  the  deceased  Count  Aremberg,  who  sorely  lamented  that 
liis  gallant  father  should  have  thrown  away  his  life  for  a  mistaken 
point  of  honor. — In  addition  to  the  above  authorities,  I  regret  it  is 
not  in  my  power  to  cite  a  volume  published  by  M.  Gachard  since  the 
present  chapter  was  written.  It  contains  the  correspondence  of  Alva 
relating  to  the  invasion  by  Louis. 


224 


REIGN  OF  TERROR. 


own  hands,  concentrate  his  forces,  and  march  in  person 
against  the  enemy. 

Yet  there  were  some  things  he  deemed  necessary  to 
he  done,  if  it  were  only  for  their  effect  on  the  pubhc 
mind,  before  entering  on  the  campaign.  On  the 
twenty-eighth  of  May,  sentence  was  passed  on  the 
prince  of  Orange,  his  brother  Louis,  and  their  noble 
companions.  They  were  pronounced  guilty  of  contu- 
macy in  not  obeying  the  summons  of  the  council,  and 
of  levying  war  against  the  king.  For  this  they  were 
condemned  to  perpetual  banishment,  and  their  estates 
confiscated  to  the  use  of  the  crown.  The  sentence  was. 
signed  by  the  duke  of  Alva.^*  William's  estates  had 
been  already  sequestrated,  and  a  body  of  Spanish  troops 
was  quartered  in  his  town  of  Breda. 

Another  act,  of  a  singular  nature,  intimated  pretty 
clearly  the  dispositions  of  the  government.  The  duke 
caused  the  Hotel  de  Culemborg,  where  he  had  fixed  his 
own  residence  before  the  regent's  departure,  and  where 
the  Gueux  had  held  their  meetings  on  coming  to  Brus- 
sels, to  be  levelled  with  the  ground.  On  the  spot  a 
marble  column  was  raised,  bearing  on  each  side  of  the 
base  the  following  inscription:  "Here  once  stood  the 
mansion  of  Florence  Pallant," — the  name  of  the  Count 
of  Culemborg, — "now  razed  to  the  ground  for  the  ex- 
ecrable conspiracy  plotted  therein  against  religion,  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  the  king's  majesty,  and  the 
country.  "57     Alva  by  this   act  intended  doubtless  to 

56  Viglii  Epist.  ad  Hopperum,  p.  181. — The  sentence  of  tlie  prince 
of  Orange  may  be  found  in  the  Sententien  van  Alba,  p.  70. 

57  Viglii  Epist.  ad  Hopperum,  p.  481. — Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico, 
torn.  i.  p.  373. — Vera  y  Figueroa,  Vida  de  Alva,  p.  loi. — The  Hotel 
de  Culemborg,  so  memorable  for  its  connection  with  the  early  meet- 


ALVA'S  PROCEEDINGS. 


225 


proclaim  to  the  world,  not  so  much  his  detestation  of 
the  confederacy — that  would  have  been  superfluous — as 
his  determination  to  show  no  mercy  to  those  who  had 
taken  part  in  it.  Indeed,  in  his  letters,  on  more  than 
one  occasion,  he  speaks  of  the  signers  of  the  Compro- 
mise as  men  who  had  placed  themselves  beyond  the 
pale  of  mercy. 

But  all  these  acts  were  only  the  prelude  to  the  dismal 
tragedy  which  was  soon  to  be  performed.  Nearly  nine 
months  had  elapsed  since  the  arrest  of  the  Counts 
Egmont  and  Hoorne.  During  all  this  time  they  had 
remained  prisoners  of  state,  under  a  strong  guard,  in 
the  castle  of  Ghent.  Their  prosecution  had  been  con- 
ducted in  a  deliberate,  and  indeed  dilatory,  manner, 
which  had  nourished  in  their  friends  the  hope  of  a 
favorable  issue.  Alva  now  determined  to  bring  the 
trial  to  a  close, — to  pass  sentence  of  death  on  the  two 
lords,  and  to  carry  it  into  execution  before  departing 
on  his  expedition. 

It  was  in  vain  that  some  of  his  counsellors  remon- 
strated on  the  impolicy,  at  a  crisis  like  the  present,  of 
outraging  the  feelings  of  the  nation,  by  whom  Egmont, 
in  particular,  was  so  much  beloved.  In  vain  they  sug- 
gested that  the  two  nobles  would  serve  as  hostages  for 
the  good  behavior  of  the  people  during  his  absence, 
since  any  tumult  must  only  tend  to  precipitate  the  fate 
of  the  prisoners. 5^    Whether  it  was  that  Alva  distrusted 

ings  of  the  Gueux,  had  not  been  long  in  possession  of  Count  Culem- 
borg,  who  purchased  it  as  late  as  1556.  It  stood  on  the  Place  du  Petit 
Sablon.    See  Reiffenberg,  Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche, 

p.  363- 

58  "  His  tamen  Albanus  facil^  contemptis,  quippe  'k  diuterna  rerum 
experientia.  suspicax,  et  suopte  ingenio  ab  alioruin  consiliis,  si  ultro 

K* 


2  26  REIGN  OF  TERROR. 

the  effect  on  his  master  of  the  importunities,  from  nu- 
merous quarters,  in  their  behalf,  or,  what  is  far  more 
likely,  that  he  feared  lest  some  popular  rising,  during 
his  absence,  might  open  the  gates  to  his  prisoners,  he 
was  determined  to  proceed  at  once  to  their  execution. 
His  appetite  for  vengeance  may  have  been  sharpened 
by  mortification  at  the  reverse  his  arms  had  lately  ex- 
perienced ;  and  he  may  have  felt  that  a  blow  like  the 
present  would  be  the  most  effectual  to  humble  the 
arrogance  of  the  nation. 

There  were  some  other  prisoners,  of  less  note,  but 
of  no  little  consideration,  who  remained  to  be  disposed 
of.  Their  execution  would  prepare  the  public  mind  for 
the  last  scene  of  the  drama.  There  were  nineteen  per- 
sons who,  at  this  time,  lay  in  confinement  in  the  castle 
of  Vilvoorde,  a  fortress  of  great  strength,  two  leagues 
distant  from  Brussels.  They  were  chiefly  men  of  rank, 
and  for  the  most  part  members  of  the  Union.  For 
these  latter,  of  course,  there  was  no  hope.  Their  trials 
were  now  concluded,  and  they  were  only  awaiting  their 
sentences.  On  the  ominous  twenty-eighth  of  May,  a 
day  on  which  the  Council  of  Blood  seems  to  have  been 
uncommonly  alert,  they  were  all,  without  exception, 
condemned  to  be  beheaded,  and  their  estates  were 
confiscated  to  the  public  use. 

On  the  first  of  June  they  were  brought  to  Brussels, 
having  been  escorted  there  by  nine  companies  of  Span- 
ish infantry,  were  conducted  to  the  great  square  in  front 
of  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  and,  while  the  drums  beat  to  pre- 
vent their  last  words  from  reaching  the  ears  of  the  by- 

praesertim  offerrentur  aversus."  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i. 
p.  386. 


ALVA'S  PROCEEDINGS. 


227 


slanders,  their  heads  were  struck  off  by  the  sword  of 
the  executioner.  Eight  of  the  number,  who  died  in 
the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  were  graciously  allowed  the 
rites  of  Christian  burial.  The  heads  of  the  remaining 
eleven  were  set  upon  poles,  and  their  bodies  left  to  rot 
upon  the  gibbet,  like  those  of  the  vilest  malefactors.  =' 

On  the  second  of  June  ten  or  twelve  more,  some  of 
them  persons  of  distinction,  perished  on  the  scaffold, 
in  the  same  square  in  Brussels.  Among  these  was  Vil- 
lers,  the  companion  of  Hoogstraten  in  the  ill-starred 
expedition  to  Brabant,  in  which  he  was  made  prisoner. 
Since  his  captivity  he  had  made  some  disclosures  re- 
specting the  measures  of  Orange  and  his  party,  which 
might  have  entitled  him  to  the  consideration  of  Alva. 
But  he  had  signed  the  Compromise. 

On  the  following  day  five  other  victims  were  led  to 
execution  within  the  walls  of  Vilvoorde,  where  they 
had  been  long  confined.  One  of  these  has  some  in- 
terest for  us,  Casembrot,  lord  of  Backerzeele,  Egmont's 

S9  Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  386. — Guerres  civiles  du 
Pays-Bas,  p.  171. — Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  57. — The  third 
volume  of  the  Archives  de  la  Maison  d' Orange-Nassau  contains  a 
report  of  this  execution  from  an  eye-witness,  a  courier  of  Alva,  who 
left  Brussels  the  day  after  the  event  and  was  intercepted  on  his  route 
by  the  patriots.  One  may  imagine  the  interest  with  which  William 
and  his  friends  listened  to  the  recital  of  the  tragedy,  and  how  deep 
must  have  been  their  anxiety  for  the  fate  of  their  other  friends, — 
Hoorne  and  Egmont  in  particular, — over  whom  the  sword  of  the 
executioner  hung  by  a  thread.  We  may  well  credit  the  account  of 
the  consternation  that  reigned  throughout  Brussels:  "  II  affirme  que 
c'estoit  une  chose  de  I'autre  monde,  le  crys,  lamentation  et  juste  com- 
passion qu'aviont  tous  ceux  de  la  ville  du  dit  Bruxelles,  nobles  et 
ignobles,  pour  ceste  barbare  tyrannie,  mais  que  nonobstant,  ce  cestuy 
Nero  d'Alve  se  vante  en  ferat  le  semblable  de  tous  ceulx  quy  potra 
avoir  en  mains."     p.  241. 


2  28  REIGN  OF  TERROR. 

confidential  secretary.  That  unfortunate  gentleman 
had  been  put  to  the  rack  more  than  once,  to  draw  from 
him  disclosures  to  the  prejudice  of  Egmont.  But  his 
constancy  proved  stronger  than  the  cruelty  of  his 
persecutors.  He  was  now  to  close  his  sufferings  by 
an  ignominious  death ;  so  far  fortunate,  however,  that 
it  saved  him  from  witnessing  the  fate  of  his  beloved 
master.*^  Such  were  the  gloomy  scenes  which  ushered 
in  the  great  catastrophe  of  the  fifth  of  June. 

*°  If  we  are  to  believe  Bentivoglio,  Backerzeele  was  torn  asunder 
by  horses:  "Da  quattro  cavalli  fu  smembrato  vivo  in  Brusselles  il 
Casembrot  gik  segretario  dell'  Agamonte."  (Guerra  di  Fiandra,  p. 
200.)  But  Alva's  character,  hard  and  unscrupulous  as  he  may  have 
been  in  carrying  out  his  designs,  does  not  warrant  the  imputation  of 
an  act  of  such  wanton  cruelty  as  this.  Happily,  it  is  not  justified  by 
historic  testimony ;  no  notice  of  the  fact  being  found  in  Strada,  or 
Meteren,  or  the  author  of  the  Guerres  civiles  du  Pays-Bas,  not  to  add 
other  writers  of  the  time,  who  cannot  certainly  be  charged  with  undue 
partiality  to  the  Spaniards.  If  so  atrocious  a  deed  had  been  perpe- 
trated, it  would  be  passing  strange  that  it  should  not  have  found  a 
place  in  the  catalogue  of  crimes  imputed  to  Alva  by  the  prince  of 
Orange.  See,  in  particular,  his  letter  to  Schwendi,  written  in  an 
agony  of  grief  and  indignation,  soon  after  he  had  learned  the  execu- 
tion of  his  friends.  Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  torn, 
iii.  p.  244. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

TRIALS   OF   EGMONT   AND   HOORNE. 

The  Examination. — Efforts  in  their  Behalf. — Specification  of  Charges. 
— Sentence  of  Death. — The  Processes  reviewed. 

1568. 

Nine  months  had  now  elapsed  since  the  Counts 
Egmont  and  Hoorne  had  been  immured  within  the 
strong  citadel  of  Ghent.  During  their  confinement 
they  had  met  with  even  less  indulgence  than  was 
commonly  shown  to  prisoners  of  state.  They  were 
not  allowed  to  take  the  air  of  the  castle,  and  were 
debarred  from  all  intercourse  with  the  members  of 
their  families.  The  sequestration  of  their  property  at 
the  time  of  their  arrest  had  moreover  reduced  them  to 
such  extreme  indigence  that  but  for  the  care  of  their 
friends  they  would  have  wanted  the  common  necessaries 
of  life.' 

During  this  period  their  enemies  had  not  been  idle. 
We  have  seen,  at  the  time  of  the  arrest  of  the  two 
nobles,  that  their  secretaries  and  their  private  papers 
had  been  also  seized.     "Backerzeele,"  writes  the  duke 

»  Bor,  the  old  Dutch  historian,  contemporary  with  these  events, 
says  that  "  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  countess-dowager,  Hoorne's 
step-mother,  that  noble  would  actually  have  starved  in  prison  from 
want  of  money  to  procure  himself  food  I"  Arend,  Algemeene  Ge- 
schiedenis  des  Vaderlands,  D.  ii.  St.  v.  bl.  37. 

Philip. — Vol.  II.  20  ( 229 ) 


230 


TRIALS    OF  EGMONT  AND  HOORNE. 


of  Alva  to  Philip,  "makes  disclosures  every  day  re- 
specting his  master,  Count  Egmont.  When  he  is  put 
to  the  torture,  wonders  may  be  expected  from  him  in 
this  way!"*  But  all  that  the  rack  extorted  from  the 
unhappy  man  was  some  obscure  intimation  respecting 
a  place  in  which  Egmont  had  secreted  a  portion  of  his 
effects.  After  turning  up  the  ground  in  every  direction 
round  the  castle  of  Ghent,  the  Spaniards  succeeded  in 
disinterring  eleven  boxes  filled  with  plate,  and  some 
caskets  of  jewels,  and  other  precious  articles, — all  that 
now  remained  of  Egmont's  once  splendid  fortune.^ 

Meanwhile,  commissioners  were  sent  into  the  prov- 
inces placed  under  the  rule  of  the  two  noblemen  to 
collect  information  respecting  their  government.  The 
burgomasters  of  the  towns  were  closely  questioned, 
and,  where  they  showed  reluctance,  were  compelled  by 
menaces  to  answer.  But  what  Alva  chiefly  relied  on 
was  the  examination  of  the  prisoners  themselves. 

On  the  twelfth  of  November,  1567,  a  commission, 
composed  of  Vargas,  Del  Rio,  and  the  Secretary  Pratz, 
proceeded  to  Ghent  and  began  a  personal  examination 
of  Egmont.  The  interrogatories  covered  the  whole 
ground  of  the  recent  troubles.  They  were  particularly 
directed  to  ascertain  Egmont's  relations  with  the  re- 
formed party,  but,  above  all,  his  connection  with  the 
confederates, — the  offence  of  deepest  dye  in  the  vicAV 
of  the  commissioners.  The  examination  continued 
through  five  days ;  and  a  record,  signed  and  sworn  to 

'  "  Ce  dernier  fait  chaque  jour  des  aveux,  at  on  peut  s'attendre  qu'il 
dira  des  merveilles,  lorsqu'il  sera  mis  \  la  torture."  Correspondance 
de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  589. 

3  Vandervynckt,  Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  p.  247. 


THE  EXAMINATION. 


231 


by  the  several  parties,  furnished  the  basis  of  the  future 
proceedings  against  the  prisoner.  A  similar  course  was 
then  taken  in  regard  to  Hoorne.* 

In  the  mean  time  the  friends  of  the  two  nobles  were 
making  active  exertions  in  their  behalf.  Egmont,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  was  married  to  a  German  princess, 
Sabina,  sister  of  the  elector  of  Bavaria, — a  lady  who, 
from  her  rank,  the  charm  of  her  manners,  and  her 
irreproachable  character,  was  the  most  distinguished 
ornament  of  the  court  of  Brussels.  She  was  the  mother 
of  eleven  children,  the  eldest  of  them  still  of  tender 
age.  Surrounded  by  this  numerous  and  helpless  fam- 
ily, thus  suddenly  reduced  from  affluence  to  miserable 
penury,  the  countess  became  the  object  of  general 
commiseration.  Even  the  stern  heart  of  Alva  seems 
to  have  been  touched,  as  he  notices  her  "lamentable 
situation,"  in  one  of  his  letters  to  Philip. ^ 

The  unhappy  lady  was  fortunate  in  securing  the  ser- 
vices of  Nicholas  de  Landas,  one  of  the  most  eminent 
jurists  of  the  country,  and  a  personal  fiiend  of  her 

4  The  Inferrogatoires,  filling  nearly  fifty  octavo  pages,  were  given 
to  the  public  by  the  late  Baron  Reiffenberg,  at  the  end  of  his  valu- 
able compilation  of  the  correspondence  of  Margaret.  Both  the 
questions  and  answers,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  were  originally  drawn 
up  in  Castilian.  A  French  version  was  immediately  made  by  the 
Secretary  Pratz, — probably  for  the  benefit  of  the  Flemish  councillors 
of  the  bloody  tribunal.  Both  the  Castilian  and  French  MSS.  were 
preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  house  of  Egmont  until  the  middle 
of  the  last  century,  when  an  unworthy  heir  of  this  ancient  line  suffered 
them  to  pass  into  other  hands.  They  were  afterwards  purchased  by 
the  crown,  and  are  now  in  a  fitting  place  of  deposit, — the  archives 
of  the  kingdom  of  Holland.  The  MS.  printed  by  Reiffenberg  is  in 
French. 

5  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  tom.  ii.  p.  14. 


232 


TRIALS   OF  EG  MO  NT  AND  HOORNE. 


husband.  In  her  name,  he  addressed  letters  to  several 
of  the  German  princes,  and  to  the  Emperor  Maximilian, 
requesting  their  good  offices  in  behalf  of  her  lord.  He 
also  wrote  both  to  Alva  and  the  king,  less  to  solicit  the 
release  of  Egmont — a  thing  little  to  be  expected — than 
to  obtain  the  removal  of  the  cause  from  the  Council  of 
Blood  to  a  court  consisting  of  the  knights  of  the  Golden 
Fleece.  To  this  both  Egmont  and  Hoorne  had  a  good 
claim,  as  belonging  to  that  order,  the  statutes  of  which, 
solemnly  ratified  by  Philip  himself,  guaranteed  to  its 
members  the  right  of  being  tried  only  by  their  peers. 
The  frank  and  independent  tone  with  which  the  Flem- 
ish jurist,  himself  also  one  of  the  order,  and  well  skilled 
in  the  law,  urged  this  claim  on  the  Spanish  monarch, 
reflects  honor  on  his  memory. 

Hoorne's  wife,  also  a  German  lady  of  high  con- 
nections, and  his  step-mother,  the  countess-dowager, 
were  unwearied  in  their  exertions  in  his  behalf.  They 
wrote  to  the  knights  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  in  whatever 
country  residing,  and  obtained  their  written  testimony 
to  the  inalienable  right  of  the  accused  to  be  tried  by 
his  brethren.'^  This  was  obviously  a  point  of  the  last 
importance,  since  a  trial  by  the  Council  of  Blood  was 
itself  equivalent  to  a  condemnation. 

Several  of  the  electors,  as  well  as  other  princes  of 
the  empire,  addressed  Philip  directly  on  the  subject, 
beseeching  him  to  deal  with  the  two  nobles  according 
to  the  statutes  of  the  order.  Maximilian  wrote  two 
letters  to  the  same  purpose ;  and,  touching  on  the 
brilliant  services  of  Egmont,  he  endeavored  to  excite 

^  Supplement  k  Strada,  torn.  i.  p.  244. 


EFFORTS  IN  THEIR  BEHALF. 


233 


the  king's  compassion  for  the  desolate  condition  of 
the  countess  and  her  children.' 

But  it  was  not  foreigners  only  who  interceded  in 
behalf  of  the  lords.  Mansfeldt,  than  whom  Philip  had 
not  a  more  devoted  subject  in  the  Netherlands,  im- 
plored his  sovereign  to  act  conformably  to  justice  and 
reason  in  the  matter.*  Count  Barlaimont,  who  on  all 
occasions  had  proved  himself  no  less  stanch  in  his  loy- 
alty, found  himself  now  in  an  embarrassing  situation, 
— being  both  a  knight  of  the  order  and  a  member  of 
the  Council  of  Troubles.  He  wrote  accordingly  to 
Philip,  beseeching  his  majesty  to  relieve  him  from  the 
necessity  of  either  acting  like  a  disloyal  subject  or  of 
incurring  the  reproaches  of  his  brethren.' 

Still  more  worthy  of  notice  is  the  interference  of 
Cardinal  Granvelle,  who,  forgetting  his  own  disgrace, 
for  which  he  had  been  indebted  to  Egmont  perhaps  as 
much  as  to  any  other  person,  now  generously  interceded 
in  behalf  of  his  ancient  foe.  He  invoked  the  clemency 
of  Philip,  as  more  worthy  of  a  great  prince  than  rigor. 
He  called  to  mind  the  former  good  deeds  of  the  count, 
and  declared,  if  he  had  since  been  led  astray,  the  blame 
was  chargeable  on  others  rather  than  on  himself."  But 
although  the  cardinal  wrote  more  than  once  to  the  king 
in  this  strain,  it  was  too  late  to  efface  the  impression 
made   by  former   communications,   in  which  he   had 

7  Supplement  \  Strada,  torn.  i.  p.  219.—  Correspondance  de  Philippe 
II.,  torn.  i.  p.  588. 

8  "  La  suppliant  de  prendre  en  cette  affaire  la  determination  que  la 
raison  et  I'equite  reclament."  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn, 
i.  p.  607. 

9  Ibid.,  p.  614. 
«>  Ibid.,  p.  599. 

20* 


234 


TRIALS   OF  EG  MO  NT  AND   HOORNE. 


accused  his  rival  of  being  a  party  to  the  treasonable 
designs  of  the  prince  of  Orange."  This  impression 
had  been  deepened  by  the  reports  from  time  to  time 
received  from  the  regent,  who  at  one  period,  as  we 
have  seen,  withdrew  her  confidence  altogether  from 
Egmont.  Thus  the  conviction  of  that  nobleman's  guilt 
was  so  firmly  settled  in  the  king's  mind  that  when  Alva 
received  the  government  of  the  Netherlands  there  can 
be  little  doubt  that  Egmont  was  already  marked  out  as 
the  first  great  victim  to  expiate  the  sins  of  the  nation. 
The  arguments  and  entreaties,  therefore,  used  on  the 
present  occasion  to  dissuade  Philip  from  his  purpose 
had  no  other  effect  than  to  quicken  his  movements. 
Anxious  to  rid  himself  of  importunities  so  annoying, 
he  ordered  Alva  to  press  forward  the  trial,  adding,  at 
the  same  time,  that  all  should  be  made  so  clear  that 
the  world,  whose  eyes  were  now  turned  on  these  pro- 
ceedings, might  be  satisfied  of  their  justice." 

Before  the  end  of  December  the  attorney-general, 
Du  Bois,  had  prepared  the  articles  of  accusation  against 
Egmont.  They  amounted  to  no  less  than  ninety,  some 
of  them  of  great  length.  They  chiefly  rested  on  evi- 
dence derived  from  the  personal  examination,  sustained 
by  information  gathered  from  other  quarters.    The  first 

I'  "  Le  Comte  d'Egmont,"  said  Granvelle,  in  a  letter  so  recent  as 
August  17th,  1567,  "  disait  au  prince  que  leurs  menees  etaient  decou- 
vertes ;  que  le  Roi  fasait  des  armements ;  qu'ils  ne  sauraient  lui 
resister ;  qu'ainsi  il  leur  fallait  dissimuler,  et  s'accommoder  le  micux 
possible,  en  attendant  d'autres  circonstances,  pour  realiser  leurs  des- 
seins."     Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  561. 

"  "  Tout  ce  qui  s'est  pass6  doit  etre  tir^  au  claire,  pour  qu'il  soit 
bien  constant  que,  dans  une  affaire  sur  laquelle  le  monde  entier  a  les 
yeux  fixfe,  le  Roi  et  lui  ont  proc^d^  avec  justice."     Ibid.,  p.  609. 


SPECIFICATION  OF  CHARGES. 


235 


article,  which  indeed  may  be  said  to  have  been  the 
key  to  all  the  rest,  charged  Egmont  with  having  con- 
spired with  William  and  the  other  banished  lords  to 
shake  off  the  Spanish  rule  and  divide  the  government 
among  themselves.  With  this  view  he  had  made  war  on 
the  faithful  Granvelle,  had  sought  to  concentrate  the 
powers  of  the  various  councils  into  one,  had  resisted  the 
Inquisition,  had  urged  the  meeting  of  the  states-general, 
in  short,  had  thwarted,  as  far  as  possible,  in  every  par- 
ticular, the  intentions  of  the  king.  He  was  accused, 
moreover,  of  giving  encouragement  to  the  sectaries. 
He  had  not  only  refused  his  aid  when  asked  to  repress 
their  violence,  but  had  repeatedly  licensed  their  meet- 
ings and  allowed  them  to  celebrate  their  religious  rites. 
Egmont  was  too  stanch  a  Catholic  to  warrant  his  own 
faith  being  called  into  question.  It  was  only  in  con- 
nection with  the  political  movements  of  the  country 
that  he  was  supposed  to  have  countenanced  the  party 
of  religious  reform.  Lastly,  he  was  charged  not  only 
with  abetting  the  confederacy  of  the  nobles,  but  with 
having,  in  conjunction  with  the  prince  of  Orange  and 
his  associates,  devised  the  original  plan  of  it.  It  was 
proof  of  the  good  will  he  bore  the  league,  that  he  had 
retained  in  his  service  more  than  one  member  of  his 
household  after  they  had  subscribed  the  Compromise. 
On  these  various  grounds,  Egmont  was  declared  to  be 
guilty  of  treason. '3 

The  charges,  which  cover  a  great  space,  would  seem 
at  the  first  glance  to  be  crudely  put  together,  confound- 
ing things  trivial,  and  even  irrelevant  to  the  question, 

»3  This  tedious  instrument  is  given  in  extenso  by  Foppens,  Supple- 
ment ii  Strada,  torn.  i.  pp.  44-63. 


236        TRIALS   OF  EGMONT  AND  HOORNE. 

with  others  of  real  moment.'*  Yet  they  must  be  ad- 
mitted to  have  been  so  cunningly  prepared  as  to  leave 
an  impression  most  unfavorable  to  the  innocence  of  the 
prisoner.  The  attorney-general,  sometimes  audaciously 
perverting  the  answers  of  Egmont,'^at  other  times  giving 
an  exaggerated  importance  to  his  occasional  admissions, 
succeeded  in  spreading  his  meshes  so  artfully  that  it 
required  no  slight  degree  of  coolness  and  circumspec- 
tion, even  in  an  innocent  party,  to  escape  from  them. 

The  instrument  was  delivered  to  Egmont  on  the 
twenty-ninth  of  December.  Five  days  only  were  al- 
lowed him  to  prepare  his  defence, — and  that,  too,  with- 
out the  aid  of  a  friend  to  support  or  of  counsel  to 
advise  him.  He  at  first  resolutely  declined  to  make  a 
defence  at  all,  declaring  that  he  was  amenable  to  no 
tribunal  but  that  of  the  members  of  the  order.  Being 
informed,  however,  that  if  he  persisted  he  would  be 
condemned  for  contumacy,  he  consented,  though  with 
a  formal  protest  against  the  proceedings  as  illegal,  to 
enter  on  his  defence. 

He  indignantly  disclaimed  the  idea  of  any  design 
to  subvert  the  existing  government.     He  admitted  the 

"4  Indeed,  this  seems  to  have  been  the  opinion  of  the  friends  of  the 
government.  Councillor  Belin  writes  to  Granvelle,  December  14th, 
1567,  "  They  have  an-ested  Hoorne  and  Egmont,  but  in  their  accusa- 
tions have  not  confined  themselves  to  individual  charges,  but  have 
accumulated  a  confused  mass  of  things."  Raumer,  Sixteenth  and 
Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  182. 

'S  For  example,  see  the  thirty-eighth  article,  in  which  the  attorney- 
general  accuses  Egmont  of  admitting,  on  his  examination,  that  he 
had  parted  with  one  of  his  followers,  suspected  of  heretical  opinions, 
for  a  short  time  only,  when,  on  the  contrary,  he  had  expressly  stated 
that  the  dismissal  was  final,  and  that  he  had  never  seen  the  man  since. 
Supplement  k  Strada,  torn.  i.  p.  40. 


SPECIFICATION  OF  CHARGES. 


237 


charges  in  regard  to  his  treatment  of  Granvelle,  and 
defended  his  conduct  on  the  ground  of  expediency, — ■ 
of  its  being  demanded  by  the  public  interest.  On  the 
same  ground  he  explained  his  course  in  reference  to 
some  of  the  other  matters  charged  on  him,  and  especi- 
ally in  relation  to  the  sectaries, — too  strong  in  numbers, 
he  maintained,  to  be  openly  resisted.  He  positively 
denied  the  connection  imputed  to  him  with  the  con- 
federates; declaring  that,  far  from  countenancing  the 
league,  he  had  always  lamented  its  existence  and  dis- 
couraged all  within  his  reach  from  joining  it.  In 
reply  to  the  charge  of  not  having  dismissed  Backer- 
zeele  after  it  was  known  that  he  had  joined  the  confed- 
erates, he  excused  himself  by  alleging  the  good  services 
which  his  secretary  had  rendered  the  government,  more 
especially  in  repressing  the  disorders  of  the  iconoclasts. 
On  the  whole,  his  answers  seem  to  have  been  given  in 
good  faith,  and  convey  the  impression — probably  not 
far  from  the  truth — of  one  who,  while  he  did  not 
approve  of  the  policy  of  the  crown,  and  thought, 
indeed,  some  of  its  measures  impracticable,  had  no 
design  to  overturn  the  government.'^ 

The  attorney-general  next  prepared  his  accusation 
of  Count  Hoorne,  consisting  of  sixty-three  separate 
charges.  They  were  of  much  the  same  import  with 
those  brought  against  Egmont.  The  bold,  impatient 
temper  of  the  admiral  made  him  particularly  open  to 
the  assault  of  his  enemies.  He  Avas  still  more  per- 
emptory than  his  friend  in  his  refusal  to  relinquish  his 

"  Egmont's  defence,  of  which  extracts,  wretchedly  garbled,  are  given 
by  Foppens,  has  been  printed  in  extenso  by  M.  de  Bavay,  in  his  usefvil 
compilation,  Proems  du  Comte  d'Egmont  (Bruxelles,  1854),  pp.  121-153. 


238        TRIALS   OF  EGMONT  AND  HOORNE. 

rights  as  a  knight  of  the  Golden  Fleece  and  appear 
before  the  tribunal  of  Alva.  When  prevailed  on  to 
waive  his  scruples,  his  defence  was  couched  in  language 
so  direct  and  manly  as  at  once  engages  our  confidence. 
"Unskilled  as  I  am  in  this  sort  of  business,"  he  re- 
marks, ''and  without  the  aid  of  counsel  to  guide  me, 
if  I  have  fallen  into  errors  they  must  be  imputed  not 
to  intention,  but  to  the  want  of  experience.  ...  I 
can  only  beseech  those  who  shall  read  my  defence  to 
believe  that  it  has  been  made  sincerely  and  in  all  truth, 
as  becomes  a  gentleman  of  honorable  descent."  '^ 

By  the  remonstrances  of  the  prisoners  and  their 
friends,  the  duke  was  at  length  prevailed  on  to  allow 
them  counsel.  Each  of  the  two  lords  obtained  the 
services  of  five  of  the  most  eminent  jurists  of  the 
country, — who,  to  their  credit,  seem  not  to  have  shrunk 
from  a  duty  which,  if  not  attended  with  actual  danger, 
certainly  did  not  lie  in  the  road  to  preferment.'* 

The  counsel  of  the  two  lords  lost  no  time  in  prepar- 
ing the  defence  of  their  clients,  taking  up  each  charge 
brought  against  them  by  the  attorney-general,  and  mi- 

»7  "Suppliant  \  tous  ceux  qui  la  verront,  croire  qu'il  a  respondu  k 
tous  les  articles  sincerement  et  en  toute  verite  comme  un  Gentilhomme 
bien  ne  est  tenu  et  oblige  de  faire."  Supplement  k  Strada,  torn.  i.  p.  209. 

*8  Foppens  has  devoted  nearly  all  the  first  volume  of  his  "  Supple- 
ment" to  pieces  illustrative  of  the  proceedings  against  Egmont  and 
Hoorne.  The  articles  of  accusation  are  given  at  length.  His  coun- 
trymen are  under  obligations  to  this  compiler,  who  thus  early  brought 
before  them  so  many  documents  of  great  importance  to  the  national 
history.  The  obligations  would  have  been  greater  if  the  editor  had 
done  his  work  in  a  scholar-like  way, — instead  of  heaping  together  a 
confused  mass  of  materials,  without  method,  often  without  dates,  and 
with  so  little  care  that  the  titles  of  the  documents  are  not  seldom  at 
variance  with  the  contents. 


DEFENCE    OF  THE  PRISONERS. 


239 


nutely  replying  to  it.  Their  defence  was  substan- 
tially the  same  with  that  which  had  been  set  up  by  the 
prisoners  themselves,  though  more  elaborate  and  sus- 
tained by  a  greater  array  both  of  facts  and  arguments.'' 
Meanwhile,  the  counsel  did  not  remit  their  efforts  to 
have  the  causes  brought  before  the  tribunal  of  the 
Toison  (f  Or.  Unless  this  could  be  effected,  they  felt 
that  all  endeavors  to  establish  the  innocence  of  their 
clients  would  be  unavailing. 

Alva  had  early  foreseen  the  embarrassments  to  which 
he  would  be  exposed  on  this  ground.  He  had  accord- 
ingly requested  Philip  to  stop  all  further  solicitations  by 
making  known  his  own  decision  in  the  matter.^  The 
king,  in  reply,  assured  the  duke  that  men  of  authority 
and  learning,  to  whom  the  subject  had  been  committed, 
after  a  full  examination,  entirely  confirmed  the  decision 
made  before  Alva's  departure,  that  the  case  of  treason 
did  not  come  within  the  cognizance  of  the  Toison 
d'  Or."     Letters   patent   accompanied   this   note,  em- 

'9  At  least  such  is  the  account  which  Foppens  gives  of  the  "Justi- 
fication," as  it  is  termed,  of  Hoorne,  of  which  tlie  Flemisli  editor  has 
printed  only  the  preamble  and  the  conclusion,  without  so  much  as 
favoring  us  with  the  date  of  the  instrument.  (Supplement  h.  Strada, 
torn.  i.  pp.  241-243.)  M.  de  Bavay,  on  the  other  hand,  has  given  the 
defence  set  up  by  Egmont's  counsel  in  extenso.  It  covers  seventy 
printed  pages,  being  double  the  quantity  occupied  by  Egmont's  de- 
fence of  himself.  By  comparing  the  two  together,  it  is  easy  to  see 
how  closely  the  former,  though  with  greater  amplification,  is  fashioned 
on  the  latter.     Proems  du  Comte  d'Egmont,  pp.  153-223. 

*>   Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  tom.  i.  p.  582. 

21  "  Quoique,  avant  le  depart  du  due,  il  ait  et^  reconnu,  dans  les 
deliberations  qui  ont  eu  lieu  &.  Madrid  en  sa  presence,  que  cette  pre- 
tention n'etait  pas  fondee,  le  Roi,  vu  la  gravite  de  I'affaire,  a  ordonne 
que  quelques  personnes  d'autorite  et  de  lettres  se  reunissent  de  nou- 
veau,  pour  examiner  la  question. — II  communique  a'j  due  les  considd- 


240        TRIALS   OF  EGMONT  AND   HOORNE. 

powering  the  duke  to  try  the  cause.  ="  With  these 
credentials  Alva  now  strove  to  silence,  if  not  to  satisfy, 
the  counsel  of  the  prisoners ;  and,  by  a  formal  decree, 
all  further  applications  for  transferring  the  cause  from 
his  own  jurisdiction  to  that  of  the  Golden  Fleece  were 
peremptorily  forbidden. 

Yet  all  were  not  to  be  thus  silenced.  Egmoifit's 
countess  still  continued  unwearied  in  her  efforts  to 
excite  a  sympathy  in  her  lord's  behalf  in  all  those  who 
would  be  likely  to  have  any  influence  with  the  govern- 
ment. Early  in  1568  she  again  wrote  to  Philip,  com- 
plaining that  she  had  not  been  allowed  so  much  as  to 
see  her  husband.  She  implored  the  king  to  take  her 
and  her  children  as  sureties  for  Egmont  and  permit  him 
to  be  removed  to  one  of  his  own  houses.  If  that  could 
not  be,  she  begged  that  he  might  at  least  be  allowed  the 
air  of  the  castle,  lest,  though  innocent,  his  confinement 
might  cost  him  his  life.  She  alludes  to  her  miserable 
condition,  with  her  young  and  helpless  family,  and 
trusts  in  the  king's  goodness  and  justice  that  she  shall 
not  be  forced  to  seek  a  subsistence  in  Germany,  from 
which  country  she  had  been  brought  to  Flanders  by  his 
father  the  emperor.  ^^     "YYvt  letter,  says  a  chronicler  of 

rations  qui  ont  ete  approuv^es  dans  cette  junte,  et  qui  confirment 
I'opinion  precedemment  emise."  Correspondance  de  Philippe  11., 
torn.  i.  p.  612. 

"  The  letters  patent  were  ante-dated  as  far  back  as  April  15th, 
1567,  probably  that  they  might  not  appear  to  have  been  got  up  for  the 
nonce.     Conf.  Ibid.,  p.  528. 

»3  "  J'esp^re  en  la  bontd,  clemence  et  justice  de  Votre  Majesty 
qu'icelle  ne  voudra  souffrir  que  je  sorte  vos  pays,  avec  mes  onze 
enfants,  pour  aller  hors  d'iceux  chercher  moyen  de  vivre,  ayant  ete 
amenee  par  feu  de  bonne  mcmoire  I'Empcrcur,  votre  pSre."  Ibid., 
torn.  ii.  p.  5. 


DEFENCE    OF  THE  PRISONERS. 


241 


the  time,  was  not  to  be  read  by  any  one  without  sincere 
commiseration  for  the  writer.'^ 

The  German  princes,  at  tlie  same  time,  continued 
their  intercessions  with  the  king  for  botu  the  nobles ; 
and  the  duke  of  Bavaria,  and  the  duke  and  duchess 
of  Lorraine,  earnestly  invoked  his  clemency  in  their 
behalf.  Philip,  wearied  by  this  importunity,  but  not 
wavering  in  his  purpose,  again  called  on  Alva  to  press 
the  trial  to  a  conclusion. ^^ 

Towards  the  end  of  April,  1568,  came  that  irruption 
across  the  borders  by  Hoogstraten  and  the  other  lords, 
described  in  the  previous  chapter.  Alva,  feeling  prob- 
ably that  his  own  presence  might  be  required  to  check 
the  invaders,  found  an  additional  motive  for  bringing 
the  trials  to  a  decision. 

On  the  sixth  of  May,  the  attorney-general  presented 
a  remonstrance  against  the  dilatory  proceedings  of 
Egmont's  counsel,  declaring  that,  although  so  many 
months  had  elapsed,  they  had  neglected  to  bring  for- 
ward their  witnesses  in  support  of  their  defence.  He 
prayed  that  a  day  might  be  named  for  the  termination 
of  the  process.^ 

^ "  Haud  facil^  sine  commiseratione  legi  k  quoquam  potest." 
Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  387. — ^According  to  Alva's  biog- 
rapher, Ossorio,  the  appeal  of  the  countess  wotfld  probably  have  soft- 
ened the  heart  of  Philip,  and  inclined  him  to  an  "ill-timed  clemency," 
had  it  not  been  for  the  remonstrance  of  Cardinal  Espinosa,  then  pre- 
dominant in  the  cabinet,  who  reminded  the  king  that  "  clemency  was 
a  sin  when  the  outrage  was  against  religion."  (Albse  Vita,  p.  282.) 
To  one  acquainted  with  the  character  of  Philip  the  "  probability"  of 
the  historian  may  seem  somewhat  less  than  probable. 

=5  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  tom.  ii.  p.  18. 

'^  Supplement  ^  Strada,  tom.  i.  p.  90. 
Philip.— Vol.  II.— L  21 


242        TRIALS   OF  EGMONT  AND   HOOKNE. 

In  the  latter  part  of  May,  news  came  of  the  battle 
won  by  Louis  of  Nassau  in  the  north.  That  now 
became  certain  which  had  before  been  only  probable, 
— that  Alva  must  repair  in  person  to  the  seat  of  war 
and  assume  the  command  of  the  army.  There  could 
be  no  further  delay.  On  the  first  of  June,  a  decree 
was  published,  declaring  that  the  time  allowed  for  the 
defence  of  the  prisoners  had  expired,  and  that  no 
evidence  could  henceforth  be  admitted.^  The  counsel 
for  the  accused  loudly  protested  against  a  decision 
which  cut  them  off  from  all  means  of  establishing  the 
innocence  of  their  clients.  They  had  abundant  testi- 
mony at  hand,  they  said,  and  had  only  waited  until  the 
government  should  have  produced  theirs.  This  was 
plausible,  as  it  was  in  the  regular  course  for  the  prose- 
cuting party  to  take  precedence.  But  one  can  hardly 
doubt  that  the  wary  lawyers  knew  that  too  little  was  to 
be  expected  from  a  tribunal  like  the  Council  of  Blood  to 
wish  to  have  the  case  brought  to  a  decision.  By  delay- 
ing matters,  some  circumstance  might  occur — perhaps 
some  stronger  expression  of  the  public  sentiment — to 
work  a  favorable  change  in  the  mind  of  the  king. 
Poor  as  it  was,  this  was  the  only  chance  for  safety ; 
and  every  day  that  the  decision  was  postponed  was  a 
day  gained  to  th^  clients. 

But  no  time  was  given  for  expostulation.  On  the 
day  on  which  Alva's  decree  was  published,  the  affair 
was  submitted  to  the  decision  of  the  Council  of  Blood  ; 

*7  Supplement  \  Strnda,  torn.  i.  p.  252. — By  a  decree  passed  on  tne 
eighteenth  of  May,  Egmont  had  been  already  excluded  from  any 
further  right  to  bring  evidence  in  his  defence.  The  documents  con- 
nected with  this  matter  are  given  by  Foppens,  Ibid.,  torn.  i.  pp.  90-103. 


SENTENCE    OF  DEATH. 


243 


and  on  the  following  morning,  the  second  of  June,  that 
body — or  rather  Vargas  and  Del  Rio,  the  only  members 
who  had  a  voice  in  the  matter — pronounced  both  the 
prisoners  guilty  of  treason,  and  doomed  them  to  death. 
The  sentence  was  approved  by  Alva. 

On  the  evening  of  the  fourth,  Alva  went  in  person 
to  the  meeting  of  the  council.  The  sentences  of  the 
two  lords,  each  under  a  sealed  envelope,  were  produced, 
and  read  aloud  by  the  secretary.  They  were  both  of 
precisely  the  same  import.  After  the  usual  preamble, 
they  pronounced  the  Counts  Egmont  and  Hoorne  to 
have  been  proved  parties  to  the  abominable  league  and 
conspiracy  of  the  prince  of  Orange  and  his  associates; 
to  have  given  aid  and  protection  to  the  confederates  ; 
and  to  have  committed  sundry  malpractices  in  their 
respective  governments  in  regard  to  the  sectaries,  to 
the  prejudice  of  the  holy  Catholic  faith.  On  these 
grounds  they  were  adjudged  guilty  of  treason  and 
rebellion,  and  were  sentenced  accordingly  to  be  be- 
headed with  the  sword,  their  heads  to  be  set  upon 
poles  and  there  to  continue  during  the  pleasure  of  the 
duke ;  their  possessions,  fiefs,  and  rights,  of  every  de- 
scription, to  be  confiscated  to  the  use  of  the  crown. *^ 

*8  Among  the  documents  analyzed  by  Gachard  is  one  exhibiting 
the  revenues  of  the  great  lords  of  the  Low  Countries  whose  estates 
were  confiscated.  No  one  except  the  prince  of  Orange  had  an  income 
nearly  so  great  as  that  of  Egmont,  amounting  to  63,000  florins.  He 
had  a  palace  at  Brussels,  and  other  residences  at  Mechlin,  Ghent. 
Bruges,  Arras,  and  the  Hague.  The  revenues  of  Count  Hoorne 
amounted  to  about  8500  florins.  Count  Culemborg,  whose  hotel  was 
the  place  of  rendezvous  for  the  Gueux,  had  a  yearly  income  exceed- 
ing 31,000  florins.  William's  revenues,  far  greater  than  either,  rose 
above  152,000.     Correspondance  de  Philippe  H.,  tom.  ii.  p.  116. 


244 


TRIALS   OF  EG  MO  NT  AND  HOORNE. 


These  sentences  were  signed  only  with  the  name  of 
Alva,  and  countersigned  with  that  of  the  Secretary 
Pratz.^ 

Such  was  the  result  of  these  famous  trials,  which, 
from  the  peculiar  circumstances  that  attended  them, 
especially  their  extraordinary  duration  and  the  illus- 
trious characters  and  rank  of  the  accused,  became  an 
object  of  general  interest  throughout  Europe.  In  re- 
viewing them,  the  first  question  that  occurs  is  in  regard 
to  the  validity  of  the  grounds  on  which  the  causes  were 
removed  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Toisoti  (T  Or. 
The  decision  of  the  "men  of  authority  and  learning" 
referred  to  by  the  king  is  of  little  moment,  considering 
the  influences  under  which  such  a  decision  in  the  court 
of  Madrid  was  necessarily  given.  The  only  authority 
of  any  weight  in  favor  of  this  interpretation  seems  to 
have  been  that  of  the  President  Viglius ;  a  man  well 
versed  in  the  law,  with  the  statutes  of  the  order  before 
him,  and,  in  short,  with  every  facility  at  his  command 
for  forming  an  accurate  judgment  in  the  matter. 

His  opinion  seems  to  have  mainly  rested  on  the  fact 
that  in  the  year  1473  ^  knight  of  the  order,  charged 
with  a  capital  crime,  submitted  to  be  tried  by  the  ordi- 
nary courts  of  law.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  some  years 
later,  in  1490,  four  knights  accused  of  treason,  the 
precise  crime  alleged  against  Egmont  and  Hoorne, 
were  arraigned  and  tried  before  the  members  of  the 
Toison.  A  more  conclusive  argument  against  Viglius 
was  afforded  by  the  fact  that  in  1531  a  law  was  passed, 
under  the  emperor  Charles  the  Fifth,  that  no  knight  of 
the  Golden  Fleece  could  be  arrested  or  tried,  for  any 
»9  Supplement  k  Strada,  torn.  i.  pp.  252-257. 


THE  PROCESSES  REVIEWED. 


245 


offence  whatever,  by  any  other  body  than  the  members 
of  his  own  order.  This  statute  was  solemnly  confirmed 
by  Philip  himself  in  1550;  and  no  law,  surely,  could 
be  devised  covering  more  effectually  the  whole  ground 
in  question.  Yet  Viglius  had  the  effrontery  to  set  this 
aside  as  of  no  force,  being  so  clearly  in  contempt  of 
all  precedents  and  statutes.  A  subterfuge  like  this, 
which  might  justify  the  disregard  of  any  law  whatever, 
found  no  favor  with  the  members  of  the  order.  Aer- 
schot  and  Barlaimont,  in  particular,  the  most  devoted 
adherents  of  the  crown,  and  among  the  few  knights 
of  the  Toison  then  in  Brussels,  openly  expressed  their 
dissent.  The  authority  of  a  jurist  like  Viglius  was  of 
great  moment,  however,  to  the  duke,  who  did  not  fail 
to  parade  it.^  But  sorely  was  it  to  the  disgrace  of  that 
timid  and  time-serving  councillor  that  he  could  thus 
lend  himself,  and  in  such  a  cause,  to  become  the  tool 
of  arbitrary  power.  It  may  well  lead  us  to  give  easier 
faith  than  we  should  otherwise  have  done  to  those 
charges  of  peculation  and  meanness  which  the  regent, 
in  the  heat  of  party  dissensions,  so  liberally  heaped  on 
him.  3' 

30  In  a  letter  dated  Jamiary  6th,  1568,  Alva  tells  the  king  that 
Viglius,  after  examining  into  the  affair,  finds  the  evidence  so  clear 
on  the  point  that  nothing  more  could  be  desired.  Correspondance 
de  Philippe  II.,  tom.  ii.  p.  4. 

31  p'or  the  facts  connected  Vkfith  the  constitution  of  the  Toison  d'  Or, 
1  am  indebted  to  a  Dutch  work  now  in  course  of  publication  in  Am- 
sterdam (Algemeene  Geschiedenis  des  Vaderlands,  van  de  vroegste 
tijden  tot  op  heden,  door  Dr.  J.  P.  Arend).  This  work,  which  is 
designed  to  cover  the  whole  history  of  the  Netherlands,  may  claim 
the  merits  of  a  thoroughness  rare  in  this  age  of  rapid  book-making, 
and  of  a  candor  rare  in  any  age.  In  my  own  ignorance  of  the  Dutch, 
1  must  acknowledge  my  obligations  to  a  friend  for  enabling  me  to 

21* 


246        TRIALS   OF  EGMONT  AND  HOORNE. 

But,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  rights  possessed 
by  the  Toison  d'  Or  in  this  matter,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  as  to  the  illegality  of  the  court  before  which  the 
cause  was  brought, — a  court  which  had  no  warrant  for 
its  existence  but  the  will  of  Alva ;  where  the  judges, 
contrary  to  the  law  of  the  land,  were  foreigners ;  where 
the  presiding  officer  was  not  even  necessarily  present 
at  the  trial  of  the  causes  on  which  he  alone  was  to  pass 
sentence. 

If  so  little  regard  was  paid  to  the  law  in  the  compo- 
sition of  this  tribunal,  scarcely  more  was  shown  to  it  in 
the  forms  of  proceeding.  On  the  present  occasion  it 
does  not  appear  that  any  evidence  was  brought  forward 
by  the  prisoners.  And  as  we  are  in  possession  of  only 
a  small  part  of  that  which  sustained  the  prosecution,  it 
is  not  easy  to  form  an  opinion  how  far  the  parties  were 
or  were  not  guilty  of  the  crime  imputed  to  them, — still 
less  whether  that  crime,  according  to  the  laws  of  the 
land,  amounted  to  treason. 3*   The  gravest  charge  made, 

read  it.  I  must  further  add  that  for  the  loan  of  the  work  I  am 
indebted  to  the  courtesy  of  B.  Homer  Dixon,  Esq.,  Consul  for  the 
Netherlands  in  Boston. 

3*  M.  de  Bavay  has  devoted  seventy  pages  or  more  of  his  publica- 
tion to  affidavits  of  witnesses  in  behalf  of  the  prosecution.  (Proems 
du  Comte  d'Egmont,  pp.  267-322.)  But  their  testimony  bears  almost 
exclusively  on  the  subject  of  Egmont's  dealings  with  the  sectaries, — 
scarcely  warranting  the  Flemish  editor's  assertion  in  his  preface,  that 
he  has  been  able  to  furnish  "all  the  elements  of  the  conviction  of  the 
accused  by  the  duke  of  Alva." — M.  de  Bavay 's  work  is  one  of  the 
good  fruits  of  that  patriotic  zeal  which  animates  the  Belgian  scholars 
of  our  time  for  the  illustration  of  their  national  history.  It  was  given 
to  the  public  only  the  last  year,  after  the  present  chapter  had  been 
written.  In  addition  to  what  is  contained  in  former  publications,  it 
furnishes  us  with  complete  copies  of  the  defence  of  Egmont,  as  pre- 
pared both  by  himself  and  his  counsel,  and  with  the  affidavits  above 


THE   PROCESSES  REVIEWED.  247 

with  any  apparent  foundation,  was  that  of  a  secret  un- 
derstanding with  the  confederates.  The  avowed  object 
of  the  confederates  was,  in  certain  contingencies,  to 
resist  the  execution  of  a  particular  ordinance, ^^  but 
without  any  design  to  overturn  the  government.  This, 
by  our  law,  could  hardly  be  construed  into  treason. 
But  in  the  Netherlands,  in  the  time  of  the  Spanish 
rule,  the  law  may  have  been  more  comprehensive  in 
its  import;  nor  is  it  likely  that  the  word  "treason" 
was  limited  in  so  explicit  a  manner  as  by  the  English 
statute-book  under  the  Plantagenets.^ 

We  have  information  of  a  curious  document  of  the 
time,  that  may  throw  light  on  the  matter.  Peter 
d'Arset,  president  of  Artois,  was  one  of  the  original 
members  of  the  Council  of  Troubles,  but  had  retired 
from  office  before  the  trial  of  the  two  lords.  It  may 
have  been  from  the  high  judicial  station  he  held  in  one 
of  Egmont's  provinces,  that  he  was  consulted  in  regard 
to  that  nobleman's  process.  After  an  examination  of 
the  papers,  he  returned  an  answer,  written  in  Latin,  at 
great  length,  and  with  a  purity  of  style  that  shows  him 
to  have  been  a  scholar.  In  this,  he  goes  over  the  whole 
ground  of  the  accusation,  article  by  article,  showing 

noticed  of  witnesses  on  the  part  of  the  government.  It  has  supplied 
me,  therefore,  with  valuable  materials,  whether  for  the  correction  or 
the  corroboration  of  my  previous  conclusions. 

33  The  resistance  to  which  those  who  signed  the  Compromise  were 
pledged  was  to  the  Inquisition,  in  case  of  its  attempt  to  arrest  any 
member  of  their  body.     Ante,  vol.  i.  p.  551. 

34  By  the  famous  statute,  in  particular,  of  Edward  the  Third,  the 
basis  of  all  subsequent  legislation  on  the  subject.  Some  reflections, 
both  on  this  law  and  the  laws  which  subsequently  modified  it,  made 
with  the  usual  acuteness  of  their  author,  may  be  found  in  the  fifteenth 
chapter  of  Hallam's  Constitutional  History  of  England. 


248        TRIALS   OF  EGMONT  AND  HOORNE. 

the  insufficiency  of  proof  on  every  cliarge,  and  by 
argument  and  legal  reference  fully  establishing  the 
innocence  of  the  accused.  The  president's  opinion, 
so  independently  given,  we  may  readily  believe,  found 
too  little  favor  with  the  duke  of  Alva  to  be  cited  as 
authority.  35 

But  even  though  it  were  true  that  the  two  lords,  in 
that  season  of  public  excitement,  had  been  seduced 
from  their  allegiance  for  a  time,  some  charity  might 
have  been  shown  to  men  who  had  subsequently  broken 
with  their  former  friends  and  displayed  the  utmost  zeal 
in  carrying  out  the  measures  of  the  government;  a  zeal 
in  the  case  of  Egmont,  at  least,  which  drew  from  the 
regent  unqualified  commendation. ^^  Something  more 
might  have  been  conceded  to  the  man  who  had  won 
for  his  sovereign  the  most  glorious  trophies  of  his 
reign.  But  Philip's  nature,  unhappily,  as  I  have  had 
occasion  to  notice,  was  of  that  sort  which  is  more 
sensible  to  injuries  than  to  benefits. 

Under  the  circumstances  attending  this  trial,  it  may 
seem  to  have  been  a  waste  of  time  to  inquire  into  the 
legality  of  the  court  which  tried  the  cause,  or  the  regu- 

35  The  original  document  is  to  be  found  in  the  archives  of  Brussels, 
or  was  in  the  time  of  Vandervynckt,  who,  having  examined  it  care- 
fully, gives  a  brief  notice  of  it.  (Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  tom.  ii.  pp. 
256,  257.)  The  name  of  its  author  should  be  cherished  by  the  his- 
torian, as  that  of  a  magistrate  who,  in  the  face  of  a  tyrannical 
government,  had  the  courage  to  enter  his  protest  against  the  judicial 
murders  perpetrated  under  its  sanction. 

3*5  Among  other  passages,  see  one  in  a  letter  of  Margaret  to  the 
king,  dated  March  23d,  1567:  "  Ceulx  de  son  conseil  icy,  qui  s'em- 
ployent  tout  fid^lement  et  diligemment  en  son  service,  et  entre 
aultres  le  comte  d' Egmont  dont  je  ne  puis  avoir  synon  bon  contente- 
ment."     Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  235. 


THE  PROCESSES  REVIEWED. 


249 


larity  of  the  forms  of  procedure.  The  real  trial  took 
place,  not  in  Flanders,  but  in  Castile.  Who  can  doubt 
that,  long  before  the  duke  of  Alva  began  his  march, 
the  doom  of  the  two  nobles  had  been  pronounced  in 
the  cabinet  of  Madrid  ?  3' 

37  M.  de  Gerlache,  in  a  long  note  to  the  second  edition  of  his 
history,  enters  into  a  scnitiny  of  Egmont's  conduct  as  severe  as  that 
by  the  attorney-general  himself, — and  with  much  the  same  result. 
(Hist,  du  Royaume  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  i.  pp.  99-101.)  "Can  any 
one  believe,"  he  asks,  "  that  if,  instead  of  having  the  '  Demon  of  the 
South'  for  his  master,  it  had  been  Charles  the  Fifth  or  Napoleon, 
Egmont  would  have  been  allowed  to  play  the  part  he  did  with  impu- 
nity so  long?"  This  kind  of  Socratic  argument,  as  far  as  it  goes, 
proves  only  that  Plulip  did  no  worse  than  Charles  or  Napoleon  would 
have  done.  It  by  no  means  proves  Egmont  to  have  deserved  his 
sentence. 


CHAPTER  V. 

EXECUTION  OF  EGMONT  AND  HOORNE. 

The  Counts  removed  to  Brussels. — Informed  of  the  Sentence. — Pro- 
cession to  the  Scaffold. — The  Execution. — Character  of  Egmont. — 
Fate  of  his  Family. — Sentiment  of  the  People. 

1568. 

On  the  second  of  June,  1568,  a  body  of  three  thou- 
sand men  was  ordered  to  Ghent  to  escort  the  Counts 
Egmont  and  Hoorne  to  Brussels.  No  resistance  was 
offered,  although  the  presence  of  the  Spaniards  caused 
a  great  sensation  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  place, 
who  too  well  foreboded  the  fate  of  their  beloved  lord. 

The  nobles,  each  accompanied  by  two  officers,  were 
put  into  separate  chariots.  They  were  guarded  by 
twenty  companies  of  pikemen  and  arquebusiers ;  and 
a  detachment  of  lancers,  among  whom  was  a  body  of 
the  duke's  own  horse,  rode  in  the  van,  while  another 
of  equal  strength  protected  the  rear.  Under  this  strong 
escort  they  moved  slowly  towards  Brussels.  One  night 
they  halted  at  Dendermonde,  and  towards  evening,  on 
the  fourth  of  the  month,  entered  the  capital.*  As  the 
martial  array  defiled  through  its  streets,  there  was  no 
one,  however  stout-hearted  he  might  be,  says  an  eye- 
witness, who  could  behold  the  funeral  pomp  of  the 

»  Relacion  de  la  Justicia  que  se  hizo  de  los  Contes  Agamonl  y 
Ome,  MS. 

(250) 


THE    COUNTS  /REMOVED    TO  BRUSSELS.      251 

procession,  and  listen  to  the  strains  of  melancholy 
music,  without  a  feeling  of  sickness  at  his  heart.* 

The  prisoners  were  at  once  conducted  to  the  Brod- 
hiiys,  or  "Bread-house,"  usually  known  as  the  Maison 
du  Roi, — that  venerable  pile  in  the  market-place  of 
Brussels,  still  visited  by  every  traveller  for  its  curious 
architecture,  and  yet  more  as  the  last  resting-place  of 
the  Flemish  lords.  Here  they  were  lodged  in  separate 
rooms,  small,  dark,  and  uncomfortable,  and  scantily 
provided  with  furniture.  Nearly  the  whole  of  the  force 
which  had  escorted  them  to  Brussels  was  established  in 
the  great  square,  to  defeat  any  attempt  at  a  rescue. 
But  none  was  made;  and  the  night  passed  away  with- 
out disturbance,  except  what  was  occasioned  by  the 
sound  of  busy  workmen  employed  in  constructing  a 
scaffold  for  the  scene  of  execution  on  the  following 
day.  3 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  fourth,  the  duke  of  Alva 
had  sent  for  Martin  Rithovius,  bishop  of  Ypres ;  and, 
communicating  to  him  the  sentence  of  the  nobles,  he 
requested  the  prelate  to  visit  the  prisoners,  acquaint 
them  with  their  fate,  and  prepare  them  for  their  execu- 
tion on  the  following  day.  The  bishop,  an  excellent 
man,  and  the  personal  friend  of  Egmont,  was  astounded 
by  the  tidings.  He  threw  himself  at  Alva's  feet,  im- 
ploring mercy  for  the  prisoners,  and,  if  he  could  not 

'  "  Marcharent  dans  la  ville  en  bataille,  et  avecques  une  batterie  de 
tambcrurins  et  de  phiffres  si  pitieuse  qu'il  n'y  avoit  spectateur  de  si 
bon  ccEur  qui  ne  palist  et  ne  pleurast  d'une  si  triste  pompe  funebre." 
Mondoucet,  ap.  Brantome,  QEuvres,  torn.  i.  p.  363. 

3  De  Thou,  Histoire  universelle,  torn.  v.  p.  450. — Guerres  civiles  du 
Pays-Bas,  p.  172. — Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Has,  fol.  57. — Relacion  de 
la  Justicia  que  se  hizo  de  los  Contes  Agamont  y  Orne,  MS. 


252 


EXECUTION  OF  EGMONT  AND  HOORNE. 


spare  their  lives,  beseeching  him  at  least  to  grant  them 
more  time  for  preparation.  But  Alva  sternly  rebuked 
the  prelate,  saying  that  he  had  been  summoned,  not  to 
thwart  the  execution  of  the  law,  but  to  console  the 
prisoners  and  enable  them  to  die  like  Christians/  The 
bishop,  finding  his  entreaties  useless,  rose  and  addressed 
himself  to  his  melancholy  mission. 

It  was  near  midnight  when  he  entered  Egmont's 
apartment,  where  he  found  the  poor  nobleman,  whose 
strength  had  been  already  reduced  by  confinement, 
and  who  was  wearied  by  the  fatigue  of  the  journey, 
buried  in  slumber.  It  is  said  that  the  two  lords,  when 
summoned  to  Brussels,  had  indulged  the  vain  hope  that 
it  was  to  inform  them  of  the  conclusion  of  their  trial 
and  their  acquittal !  s  However  this  may  be,  Egmont 
seems  to  have  been  but  ill  prepared  for  the  dreadful 
tidings  he  received.  He  turned  deadly  pale  as  he 
listened  to  the  bishop,  and  exclaimed,  with  deep  emo- 
tion, "It  is  a  terrible  sentence.  Little  did  I  imagine 
that  any  offence  I  had  committed  against  God  or  the 
king  could  merit  such  a  punishment.  It  is  not  death 
that  I  fear.  Death  is  the  common  lot  of  all.  But  I 
shrink  from  dishonor.  Yet  I  may  hope  that  my  suffer- 
ings will  so  far  expiate  my  offences  that  my  innocent 
family  will  not  be  involved  in  my  ruin  by  the  confisca- 

4  "  Sur  quoy  le  Due  lui  repondit  fort  vivement  et  avec  une  espece 
de  colere,  qu'il  ne  I'avoit  pas  fait  venir  k  Brusselle  pour  mettre  quelque 
empechement  k  I'execution  de  leur  sentence,  mais  bien  pour  les  con- 
soler et  les  assister  \  mourir  chretienncmcnt."  Supplement  h,  Strada, 
torn.  i.  p.  259. 

5  "  Venian  en  alguna  manera  contentos  de  pensar  que  sus  causas 
andaban  al  cabo,  y  que  havian  de  salir  presto  y  bien  despachados  este 
dia."     Relacion  de  la  Justicia,  MS. 


INFORMED    OF   THE   SENTENCE. 


253 


tion  of  my  property.  Thus  much,  at  least,  I  think 
I  may  claim  in  consideration  of  my  past  services." 
Then,  after  a  pause,  he  added,  ''Since  my  death  is  the 
will  of  God  and  his  majesty,  I  will  try  to  meet  it  with 
patience."^  He  asked  the  bishop  if  there  were  no 
hope.  On  being  answered,  "  None  whatever,"  he  re- 
solved to  devote  himself  at  once  to  preparing  for  the 
solemn  change. 

He  rose  from  his  couch,  and  hastily  dressed  himself. 
He  then  made  his  confession  to  the  prelate,  and  desired 
that  mass  niight  be -said,  and  the  sacrament  adminis- 
tered to  him.  This  was  done  with  great  solemnity,  and 
Egmont  received  the  communion  in  the  most  devout 
manner,  manifesting  the  greatest  contrition  for  his  sins. 
He  next  inquired  of  the  bishop  to  what  prayer  he  could 
best  have  recourse  to  sustain  him  in  this  trying  hour. 
The  prelate  recommended  to  him  that  prayer  which  our 
Saviour  had  commended  to  his  disciples.  The  advice 
pleased  the  count,  who  earnestly  engaged  in  his  devo- 
tions. But  a  host  of  tender  recollections  crowded  on  his 
mind,  and  the  images  of  his  wife  and  children  drew  his 
thoughts  in  another  direction,  till  the  kind  expostula- 
tions of  the  prelate  again  restored  him  to  himself. 

6  "  Voicy  une  Sentence  bien  rigoureuse,  je  ne  pense  pas  d'avoir  tant 
offence  Sa  Majeste,  pour  meriter  un  tel  traittement ;  neanmoins  je  le 
prens  en  patience  et  prie  le  Seigneur,  que  ma  mort  soil  une  expiation 
de  mes  peches,  et  que  par  IS,,  ma  chere  Femme  et  mes  Enfans  n'en- 
courent  aucim  blame,  ny  confiscation.  Car  mes  services  passez  meri- 
tent  bien  qu'on  me  fasse  cette  grace.  Puis  qu'il  plait  k  Dieu  et  au 
Roy,  j'accepte  la  mort  avec  patience."  Supplement  k  Strada,  torn.  i. 
p.  259. — These  remarks  of  Egmont  are  also  given,  with  very  little  dis- 
crepancy, by  Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  56;  in  the  Relacion  de 
la  Justicia  que  se  hizo  de  los  Contes  Agamont  y  Orne,  MS. ;  and  in 
the  relation  of  Mondoucet.  ap.  Rrantome,  CEuvres,  torn.  i.  p.  364. 
Philip.—VoL.  II.  22 


254 


EXECUTION  OF  EG  MONT  AND  IIOOKNE. 


Egmont  asked  whether  it  would  be  well  to  say  any 
thing  on  the  scaffold  for  the  edification  of  the  people. 
But  the  bishop  discouraged  him,  saying  that  he  would 
be  imperfectly  heard,  and  that  the  people,  in  their 
present  excitement,  would  be  apt  to  misinterpret  what 
he  said  to  their  own  prejudice. 

Having  attended  to  his  spiritual  concerns,  Egmont 
called  for  writing-materials,  and  wrote  a  letter  to  his 
wife,  whom  he  had  not  seen  during  his  long  confine- 
ment ;  and  to  her  he  now  bade  a  tender  farewell.  He 
then  addressed  another  letter,  written  in  French,  in  a 
few  brief  and  touching  sentences,  to  the  king, — which 
fortunately  has  been  preserved  to  us.  "This  morning," 
he  says,  '*I  have  been  made  acquainted  with  the  sen- 
tence which  it  has  pleased  your  majesty  to  pass  upon 
me.  And  although  it  has  never  been  my  intent  to  do 
aught  against  the  person  or  the  service  of  your  majesty, 
or  against  our  true,  ancient,  and  Catholic  faith,  yet  I 
receive  in  patience  what  it  has  pleased  God  to  send 
me.'  If  during  these  troubles  I  have  counselled  or 
permitted  aught  which  might  seem  otherwise,  I  have 
done  so  from  a  sincere  regard  for  the  service  of  God 
and  yoilr  majesty,  and  from  what  I  believed  the  neces- 
sity of  the  times.  Wherefore  I  pray  your  majesty  to 
pardon  it,  and  for  the  sake  of  my  past  services  to  take 
pity  on  my  poor  wife,  my  children,  and  my  servants. 
In  this  trust,  I  commend  myself  to  the  mercy  of  God." 

7  "  Et  combien  que  jamais  mon  intention  n'ait  est^  de  riens  traicter, 
ni  faire  contre  la  Personne,  ni  le  service  de  Vostre  Majesty,  ne  contre 
nostre  vraye,  ancienne,  et  catholicqiie  Religion,  si  est-ce  que  je  prens 
en  patience,  ce  qu'il  plaist  a  mon  bon  Dieu  de  m'envoyer."  Supple- 
ment \  Strada,  tom.  i.  p.  261, 


INFORMED    OF   THE  SENTENCE. 


255 


The  letter  is  dated  Brussels,  "on  the  point  of  death," 
June  5th,  1568.* 

Having  time  still  left,  the  count  made  a  fair  copy  of 
the  two  letters,  and  gave  them  to  the  bishop,  entreating 
him  to  deliver  them  according  to  their  destination. 
He  accompanied  that  to  Philip  with  a  ring,  to  be  given 
at  the  same  time  to  the  monarch. '  It  was  of  great 
value,  and,  as  it  had  been  the  gift  of  Philip  himself 
during  the  count's  late  visit  to  Madrid,  it  might  soften 
the  heart  of  the  king  by  reminding  him  of  happier 
days,  when  he  had  looked  with  an  eye  of  favor  on  his 
unhappy  vassal. 

Having  completed  all  his  arrangements,  Egmont  be- 
came impatient  for  the  hour  of  his  departure ;  and  he 
expressed  the  hope  that  there  would  be  no  unnecessary 
delay. '°  At  ten  in  the  morning  the  soldiers  appeared 
who  were  to  conduct  him  to  the  scaffold.  They 
brought  with  them  cords,  as  usual,  to  bind  the  prison- 
er's hands.  But  Egmont  remonstrated,  and  showed 
that  he  had,  himself,  cut  off  the  collar  of  his  doublet 
and  shirt,  in  order  to  facilitate  the  stroke  of  the  execu- 
tioner. This  he  did  to  convince  them  that  he  medi- 
tated  no  resistance;    and  on  his  promising   that   he 

8  "  Parquoy,  je  prie  k  Vostre  Majeste  me  le  pardonner,  et  avoir 
pitie  dc  iTia  pauvre  femme,  enfans  et  serviteurs,  vous  souvenant  de  mes 
services  passez.  Et  sur  cest  cspoir  m'en  vois  me  recommander  \  la 
misericorde  de  Dieu.  De  Bruxelles  prest  h.  mourir,  ce  5  de  Juing 
1568."     Supplement  d  Strada,  ubi  supra. 

9  "  Et  luy  donna  une  bague  fort  riche  que  le  roy  d'Espaigne  luy 
avoit  dcnne  lors  qii'il  fut  en  Espaigne,  en  signe  d'amitie,  pour  la  luy 
envoyer  et  faire  tenir."     Brantome,  CEuvres,  torn.  i.  p.  361. 

'0  "  En  apres,  le  comte  d'Aiguemont  commenca  \  soliciter  fort  I'ad- 
vancement  de  sa  mort,  disant  que  puis  qu'il  devoit  mourir  qv.'on  ne 
le  devoit  tenir  si  longuement  en  ce  travail."    Mondoucet,  Ibid.,  p.  366. 


256     EXECUTION  OF  EGMONT  AND   HOORNE. 

would  attempt  none,  they  consented  to  his  remaining 
with  his  hands  mibound. 

Egmont  was  dressed  in  a  crimson  damask  robe,  over 
whicli  was  a  Spanish  mantle  fringed  with  gold.  His 
breeches  were  of  black  silk,  and  his  hat,  of  the  same 
material,  was  garnished  with  white  and  sable  plumes." 
In  his  hand,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  remained  free,  he 
held  a  white  handkerchief  On  his  way  to  the  place 
of  execution  he  was  accompanied  by  Julian  de  Romero, 
maitre  de  camp,  by  the  captain,  Salinas,  who  had  charge 
of  the  fortress  of  Ghent,  and  by  the  bishop  of  Ypres. 
As  the  procession  moved  slowly  forward,  the  count 
repeated  some  portion  of  the  fifty-first  Psalm, — "Have 
mercy  on  me,  O  God  !" — in  which  the  good  prelate 
joined  with  him.  In  the  centre  of  the  square,  on  the 
spot  where  so  much  of  the  best  blood  of  the  Netherlands 
has  been  shed,  stood  the  scaffold,  covered  with  black 
cloth.  On  it  were  two  velvet  cushions  with  a  small 
table,  shrouded  likewise  in  black,  and  supporting  a 
silver  crucifix.  At  the  corners  of  the  platform  were 
two  poles,  pointed  at  the  end  with  steel,  intimating  the 
purpose  for  which  they  were  intended." 

I'  "  II  estoit  vestu  d'une  juppe*  de  damas  cramoisy,  et  d'un  manteau 
noir  avec  du  passement  d'or,  les  chausses  de  taffetas  noir  et  le  bas  de 
chamois  bronze,  son  chapeau  de  taffetas  noir  couvert  de  force  plumes 
blanches  et  noires."     Mondoucet,  ap.  Brantome,  CEuvres,  iibi  supra. 

•2  Ossorio,  Albse  Vita,  p.  287. — Guerres  civiles  du  Pays-Bas,  p.  177. 
— Relacion  de  la  Justicia,  MS. 

*  [The  "Juppe"  {jupon,  giubbone,  doublet)  was  a  tight-fitting  gar- 
ment, suitably  covered  with  a  mantle  or  other  outer  garment  when 
the  wearer  went  abroad.  A  crimson  robe  was,  however,  the  costume 
of  the  Toison  d'  Or,  which,  with  the  collar,  Egmont  is  stated  by  some 
writers  to  have  worn  on  the  scaffold,  removing  them  before  his 
decapitation. — Ed.] 


PROCESSION  TO    THE   SCAFFOLD. 


'■51 


In  front  of  the  scaffold  was  the  provost  of  the  court, 
mounted  on  horseback,  and  bearing  the  red  wand  of 
office  in  his  hand.'^  The  executioner  remained,  as 
usual,  below  the  platform,  screened  from  view,  that  he 
might  not,  by  his  presence  before  it  was  necessary, 
outrage  the  feelings  of  the  prisoners.'^  The  troops, 
who  had  been  under  arms  all  night,  were  drawn  up 
around  in  order  of  battle ;  and  strong  bodies  of  arque- 
busiers  were  posted  in  the  great  avenues  which  led  to 
the  square.  The  space  left  open  by  the  soldiery  was 
speedily  occupied  by  a  crowd  6f  eager  spectators. 
Others  thronged  the  roofs  and  windows  of  the  build- 
ings that  surrounded  the  market-place,  some  of  which, 
still  standing  at  the  present  day,  show,  by  their  quaint 
and  venerable  architecture,  that  they  must  have  looked 
down  on  the  tragic  scene  we  are  now  depicting. 

It  was  indeed  a  gloomy  day  for  Brussels, — so  long 
the  residence  of  the  two  nobles,  where  their  forms  were 
as  familiar  and  where  they  were  held  in  as  much  love 

'3  This  personage,  whose  name  was  Spel,  met  with  no  better  fate 
than  that  of  the  victims  whose  execution  he  now  superintended.  Not 
long  after  this  he  was  sentenced  to  the  gallows  by  the  duke,  to  the 
great  satisfaction  of  the  people,  as  Strada  tells  us,  for  the  manifold 
crimes  he  had  committed.     De  Bello  Belgico,  tom.  i.  p.  387. 

'4  The  executioner  was  said  to  have  been  formerly  one  of  Egmont's 
servants:  "El  verdugo,  que  hasta  aquel  tiempo  no  se  havia  dejado 
ver,  por  que  en  la  forma  de  morir  se  le  tuvo  este  respeto,  hizo  su 
oficio  con  gran  presteza,  al  qual  havia  hecho  dar  aquel  maldito  oficio 
el  dicho  Conde,  y  dicen  aver  sido  lacayo  suyo."  Relacion  de  la 
Justicia,  MS. — This  re/acion  forms  part  of  a  curious  compilation  in 
MS.,  entitled  "  Cartas  y  Papeles  varios,"  in  the  British  Museum.  The 
compiler  is  supposed  to  have  been  Pedro  de  Gante,  secretary  of  the 
duke  of  Najera,  who  amused  himself  with  transcribing  various  curi- 
ous "relations'  of  the  time  of  Charles  the  Fifth  and  Philip  the 
Second. 

22* 


258     EXECUTION  OF  EGMONT  AND  HOORNE. 

and  honor  as  in  any  of  their  own  provinces.  All 
business  was  suspended.  The  shops  were  closed.  The 
bells  tolled  in  all  the  churches.  An  air  of  gloom,  as 
of  some  impending  calamity,  settled  on  the  city.  "It 
seemed,"  says  one  residing  there  at  the  time,  "as  if 
the  day  of  judgment  were  at  hand  !"  '^ 

As  the  procession  slowly  passed  through  the  ranks  of 
the  soldiers,  Egmont  saluted  the  officers — some  of  them 
his  ancient  companions — with  such  a  sweet  and  digni- 
fied composure  in  his  manner  as  was  long  remembered 
by  those  who  saw  it.  And  few  even  of  the  Spaniards 
could  refrain  from  tears  as  they  took  their  last  look  at  the 
gallant  noble  who  was  to  perish  by  so  miserable  an  end.** 

With  a  steady  step  he  mounted  the  scaffold,  and, 
as  he  crossed  it,  gave  utterance  to  the  vain  wish  that, 
instead  of  meeting  such  a  fate,  he  had  been  allowed 
to  die  in  the  service  of  his  king  and  country. '^  He 
quickly,  however,  turned  to  other  thoughts,  and,  kneel- 
ing on  one  of  the  cushions,  with  the  bishop  beside  him 
on  the  other,  he  was  soon  engaged  earnestly  in  prayer. 
With  his  eyes  raised  towards  heaven  with  a  look  of 
unutterable  sadness,'*  he  prayed  so  fervently  and  loud 
as  to  be  distinctly  heard  by  the  spectators.     The  prel- 

>S  "Todas  las  boticas  se  cerraron,  y  doblaron  por  ellos  todo  el  dia 
las  campanas  de  las  Yglesias,  que  no  parecia  otra  cosa  si  no  dia  de 
juicio."     Rclacion  de  la  Justicia,  MS. 

'*  "  Lesquelz  pleuroient  et  regrettoient  de  voir  un  si  grand  capitaine 
mourir  ainsi."     Mondoucet,  ap.  BrantSme,  CEuvres,  torn.  i.  p.  267. 

»7  "  II  se  pourmena  quelque  peu,  souhaytant  de  pouvoir  finir  sa  vie 
au  service  de  son  Prince  et  du  pais."  Meteren,  Mist,  des  Pays-b.is, 
fol.  58. 

»8  "  Alzo  los  ojos  al  cielo  por  un  poco  espacio  con  un  semblante  tan 
doloroso,  como  se  puede  pensar  le  tenia  en  aqucl  transito  un  honibre 
tan  discrcto."     Relacion  de  la  Justicia,  MS. 


THEIR  LAST  MOMENTS. 


259 


ate,  much  affected,  put  into  his  hands  the  silver  cru- 
cifix, which  Egmont  repeatedly  kissed;  after  which, 
having  received  absolution  for  the  last  time,  he  rose 
and  made  a  sign  to  the  bishop  to  retire.  He  then 
stripped  off  his  mantle  and  robe ;  and,  again  kneeling, 
he  drew  a  silk  cap,  which  he  had  brought  for  the 
purpose,  over  his  eyes,  and,  repeating  the  words, 
"Into  thy  hands,  O  Lord,  I  commend  my  spirit," 
he  calmly  awaited  the  stroke  of  the  executioner. 

The  low  sounds  of  lamentation  which  from  time  to 
time  had  been  heard  among  the  populace  were  now 
hushed  into  silence,''  as  the  minister  of  justice,  appear- 
ing on  the  platform,  approached  his  victim  and  with  a 
single  blow  of  the  sword  severed  the  head  from  the 
body.  A  cry  of  horror  rose  from  the  multitude,  and 
some,  frantic  with  grief,  broke  through  the  ranks  of 
the  soldiers  and  wildly  dipped  their  handkerchiefs  in 
the  blood  that  streamed  from  the  scaffold,  treasuring 
them  up,  says  the  chronicler,  as  precious  memorials  of 
love  and  incitements  to  vengeance.'**  The  head  was 
then  set  on  one  of  the  poles  at  the  end  of  the  platform, 
while  a  mantle  thrown  over  the  mutilated  trunk  hid  it 
from  the  public  gaze." 

'9  "  En  gran  silencio,  con  notable  lastima,  sin  que  por  un  buen 
espacio  se  sintiese  rumor  ninguno."    Relacion  de  la  Justicia,  MS. 

=0  "  Fuere,  qui  linteola,  contempto  periculo,  Egmontii  cruore  con- 
Sperserint,  servaverintque,  seu  monumentum  amoris,  seu  vindictae 
irritamentum."     Strada,  De  Bello  Hclgico,  torn.  i.  p.  394. 

=*•  Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  58. — Guerres  civiles  du  Pays- 
Bas,  p.  177. — Relacion  de  la  Justicia,  MS. — M.  de  Bavay  has  pub- 
lished a  letter  from  one  of  the  bishop  of  Ypres's  household,  giving  an 
account  of  the  last  hours  of  Egmont,  and  written  immediately  after 
his  death.  (Proces  du  Comte  d'Egniont,  pp.  232-234.)  The  state- 
ments in  the  letter  entirely  corroborate  those  made  in  the  te.xt.     In- 


26o     EXECUTION  OF  EG  MO  NT  AND  HOORNE. 

It  was  near  noon  when  orders  were  sent  to  lead  forth 
the  remaining  prisoner  to  execution.  It  had  been 
assigned  to  the  curate  of  La  Chapelle  to  acquaint 
Count  Hoorne  with  his  fate.  That  nobleman  received 
the  awful  tidings  with  less  patience  than  was  shown  by 
his  friend.  He  gave  way  to  a  burst  of  indignation  at 
the  cruelty  and  injustice  of  the  sentence.  It  was  a 
poor  requital,  he  said,  for  eight-and-twenty  years  of 
faithful  service  to  his  sovereign.  Yet,  he  added,  he 
was  not  sorry  to  be  released  from  a  life  of  such  inces- 
sant fatigue.^  For  some  time  he  refused  to  confess, 
saying  he  had  done  enough  in  the  way  of  confession. '^ 
When  urged  not  to  throw  away  the  few  precious  mo- 
ments that  were  left  to  him,  he  at  length  consented. 

The  count  was  dressed  in  a  plain  suit  of  black,  and 
wore  a  Milanese  cap  upon  his  head.  He  was,  at  this 
time,  about  fifty  years  of  age.  He  was  tall,  with 
handsome  features,  and  altogether  of  a  commanding 
presence.^  His  form  was  erect,  and  as  he  passed  with 
a  steady  step  through  the  files  of  soldiers,  on  his  way 
to  the  place  of  execution,  he  frankly  saluted  those  of 

deed,  they  are  so  nearly  identical  with  those  given  by  Foppens  in  the 
Supplement  h.  Strada,  that  we  can  hardly  doubt  that  the  writer  of  the 
one  narrative  had  access  to  the  other. 

'^  "  Que  avia  servido  £  su  magestad  veinte  y  ocho  aiios  y  no  pensaba 
tener  merecido  tal  payo,  pero  que  se  consolaba  que  con  dar  su  cuerpo 
&  la  tierra,  saldria  de  los  continuos  trauajos  en  que  havia  vivido." 
Relacion  de  la  Justicia,  MS. 

*3  "  Se  despita,  maugreant  et  regrettant  fort  sa  mort,  et  se  trouva 
quelque  peu  opiniastre  en  la  confession,  la  regrettant  fort,  disant  qu'il 
estoit  assez  confesse."     Mondoucet,  ap.  Brantome,  torn.  i.  p.  365. 

*»  "  II  ^toit  ag^  environ  cinquante  ans,  et  etoit  d'une  grande  et 
belle  taille,  et  d'une  phisionomie  revenante."  Supplement  k  Strada, 
torn.  i.  p.  264. 


THEIR   LAST  MOMENTS.  26 1 

his  acquaintance  whom  he  saw  among  tlie  spectators. 
His  look  had  in  it  less  of  sorrow  than  of  indignation, 
like  that  of  one  conscious  of  enduring  wrong.  He 
was  spared  one  pang,  in  his  last  hour,  which  had  filled 
Egmont's  cup  with  bitterness :  though,  like  him,  he  had 
a  wife,  he  was  to  leave  no  orphan  family  to  mourn  him. 

As  he  trod  the  scaffold,  the  apparatus  of  death 
seemed  to  have  no  power  to  move  him.  He  still  re- 
peated the  declaration  that,  "often  as  he  had  offended 
his  Maker,  he  had  never,  to  his  knowledge,  committed 
any  offence  against  the  king."  When  his  eyes  fell  on 
the  bloody  shroud  that  enveloped  the  remains  of  Eg- 
mont,  he  inquired  if  it  were  the  body  of  his  friend. 
Being  answered  in  the  affirmative,  he  made  some  remark 
in  Castilian,  not  understood.  He  then  prayed  for  a 
few  moments,  but  in  so  low  a  tone  that  the  words  were 
not  caught  by  the  by-standers,  and,  rising,  he  asked 
pardon  of  those  around  if  he  had  ever  offended  any 
of  them,  and  earnestly  besought  their  prayers.  Then, 
without  further  delay,  he  knelt  down,  and,  repeating 
the  words  '^  In  ma  mis  in  as,  Dojnine,"  he  submitted 
himself  to  his  fate.^^ 

His  bloody  head  was  set  up  opposite  to  that  of  his 
fellow-sufferer.  For  three  hours  these  ghastly  trophies 
remained  exposed  to  the  gaze  of  the  multitude.  They 
were  then  taken  down,  and,  with  the  bodies,  placed  in 

=5  "The  death  of  this  man,"  says  Strada,  "would  have  been  im- 
moderately mourned,  had  not  all  tears  been  exhausted  by  sorrow  for 
Egmont."  De  Bello  Belgico,  tom.  i.  p.  396. — For  the  account  of 
Hoorne's  last  moments,  see  Relacion  de  la  Justicia,  MS. ;  Meteren, 
Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  58;  Supplement  h.  Strada,  tom.  i.  pp.  265, 
266 ;  Mondoucet,  ap.  Brantome,  Oi^uvres,  tom.  i.  p.  367 ;  De  Thou, 
Hist,  universelle,  tom.  i.  p.  451 ;  Ossorio,  Albse  Vita,  p.  287. 


262      EXECUTION  OF  EGMONT  AND  HOORNE, 

leaden  coffins,  which  were  straightway  removed, — that 
containing  the  remains  of  Egmont  to  the  convent  of 
Santa  Clara,  and  that  of  Hoorne  to  the  ancient  church 
of  Ste.  Gudule,  To  these  places,  especially  to  Santa 
Clara,  the  people  now  flocked,  as  to  the  shrine  of  a 
martyr.  They  threw  themselves  on  the  coffin,  kissing 
it  and  bedewing  it  with  their  tears,  as  if  it  had  con- 
tained the  relics  of  some  murdered  saint ;  ^  while  many 
of  them,  taking  little  heed  of  the  presence  of  informers, 
breathed  vows  of  vengeance,  some  even  swearing  not 
to  trim  either  hair  or  beard  till  these  vows  were  exe- 
cuted.'^ The  government  seems  to  have  thought  it 
prudent  to  take  no  notice  of  this  burst  of  popular 
feeling.  But  a  funeral  hatchment,  blazoned  with  the 
arms  of  Egmont,  which,  as  usual  after  the  master's 
death,  had  been  fixed  by  his  domestics  on  the  gates 
of  his  mansion,  was  ordered  to  be  instantly  removed, — 
no  doubt,  as  tending  to  keep  alive  the  popular  excite- 
ment.^^ The  bodies  were  not  allowed  to  remain  long 
in  their  temporary  places  of  deposit,  but  were  trans- 
ported to  the  family  residences  of  the  two  lords  in  the 
country,  and  laid  in  the  vaults  of  their  ancestors. '^ 

=6  "  Plusieurs  allarent  k  I'eglise  Saincte  Claire  ou  gisoit  son  corp, 
baisant  le  cercueil  avec  grande  effusion  de  larmes,  comma  si  ce  fust 
este  les  saincts  ossemens  et  reliques  de  quelque  sainct."  Mondoucet, 
ap.  Brantome,  CEuvres,  torn.  i.  p.  367. 

27  Arend,  Algemeene  Geschiedenis  des  Vaderlands,  D.  ii.  St.  v.  bl. 
66. — Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  tom.  i.  p.  395. 

=*  "  Les  gens  du  comte  d'Aiguemont  plant^rent  ses  armes  et  en- 
seignes  de  deuil  ^  sa  porte  du  palais ;  mais  le  due  d'Albe  en  estant 
adverty,  les  en  fit  bien  oster  bientost  et  emporter  dehors."  Mon- 
doucet, ap.  Brantome,  ffiuvres,  tom.  i.  p.  367. 

»9  Mondoucet,  the  French  ambassador  at  the  court  of  Brussels, 
was  among  the  spectators  who  witnessed  the  execution  of  the  two 


CHARACTER    OF  EG  MO  NT.  263 

Thus  by  the  luind  of  the  common  executioner  per- 
ished these  two  unfortunate  noblemen,  who,  by  their 
rank,  possessions,  and  personal  characters,  were  the 
most  illustrious  victims  that  could  have  been  selected 
in  the  Netherlands.  Both  had  early  enjoyed  the  favor 
of  Charles  the  Fifth,  and  both  had  been  intrusted  by 
Philip  with  some  of  the  highest  offices  in  the  state. 
Philip  de  Montmorency,  Count  Hoorne,  the  elder  of 
the  two,  came  of  the  ancient  house  of  Montmorency 
in  France.  Besides  filling  the  high  post  of  Admiral 
of  the  Low  Countries,  he  was  made  governor  of  the 
provinces  of  Gueldres  and  Zutphen,  was  a  councillor 
of  state,  and  was  created  by  the  emperor  a  knight  of 
the  Golden  Fleece.  His  fortune  was  greatly  inferior 
to  that  of  Count  Egmont ;  yet  its  confiscation  afforded 
a  supply  by  no  means  unwelcome  to  the  needy  ex- 
chequer of  the  duke  of  Alva. 

However  nearly  on  a  footing  they  might  be  in  many 
respects,  Hoorne  was  altogether  eclipsed  by  his  friend 
in  military  renown.  Lamoral,  Count  Egmont,  inherited 
through  his  mother,  the  most  beautiful  woman  of  her 
time, 3°  the  title  of  prince  of  Gavre, — a  place  on  the 
Scheldt,  not  far  from  Ghent.  He  preferred,  however, 
the  more  modest  title  of  Count  of  Egmont,  which  came 
to  him  by  the  father's  side,  from  ancestors  who  had 
reigned  over  the  duchy  of  Gueldres.     The  uncommon 

nobles.  He  sent  home  to  his  master  a  full  account  of  the  tragic 
scene,  the  most  minute,  and  perhaps  the  most  trustworthy,  that  we 
have  of  it.  It  luckily  fell  into  Brantome's  hands,  who  has  incorpo- 
rated it  into  his  notice  of  Egmont. 

30  "  La  comtesse  d'Aiguemont,  qui  emporta  en  cette  assemblee  le 
bruit  d'etre  la  plus  belle  de  toutes  les  Flamandes."  Correspondancc 
de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  p.  364. 


204     EXECUTION  OF  EGMONT  AND  IIOORNE. 

promise  which  he  early  gave  served,  with  his  high  po- 
sition, to  recommend  him  to  the  notice  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  the  Fifth,  who,  in  1544,  honored  by  his  pres- 
ence Egmont's  nuptials  with  Sabina,  countess-palatine 
of  Bavaria.  In  1546,  when  scarcely  twenty-four  years 
of  age,  he  was  admitted  to  the  order  of  the  Golden 
Fleece, — and,  by  a  singular  coincidence,  on  the  same 
day  on  which  that  dignity  was  bestowed  on  the  man 
destined  to  become  his  mortal  foe,  the  duke  of  Alva. 3' 
Philip,  on  his  accession,  raised  him  to  the  dignity  of  a 
councillor  of  state,  and  made  him  governor  of  the  im- 
portant provinces  of  Artois  and  Flanders. 

But  every  other  title  to  distinction  faded  away  before 
that  derived  from  those  two  victories  which  left  the 
deepest  stain  on  the  French  arms  that  they  had  received 
since  the  defeat  of  Pavia.  "I  have  seen,"  said  the 
French  ambassador,  who  witnessed  the  execution  of 
Egmont,  ' '  I  have  seen  the  head  of  that  man  fall  who 
twice  caused  France  to  tremble.  "^^ 

Yet  the  fame  won  by  his  success  was  probably  unfor- 
tunate for  Egmont.  For  this,  the  fruit  of  impetuous 
valor  and  of  a  brilliant  cojip-de-main,  was  very  different 
from  the  success  of  a  long  campaign,  implying  genius 
and  great  military  science  in  the  commander.  Yet  the 
eclat  it  gave  was  enough  to  turn  the  head  of  a  man  less 
presumptuous  than  Egmont.  It  placed  him  at  once  on 
the  most  conspicuous  eminence  in  the  country,  compel- 
ling him,  in  some  sort,  to  take  a  position  above  his 
capacity  to  maintain.     When  the  troubles  broke  out, 

31  Gerlache,  Hist,  du  Royaume  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  i.  p.  96. 

32  "  Qu'il  avoit  vu  tomber  la  tete  de  cclui  qui  avoit  fait  trembler 
deux  fois  la  France."     Supplement  k  Strada,  torn.  i.  p.  266. 


CHARACTER    OF  EGMONT.  265 

Egmont  was  found  side  by  side  with  Orange,  in  the 
van  of  the  malecontents.  He  was  urged  to  this  rathei 
by  generous  sensibility  to  the  wrongs  of  his  countrymen 
than  by  any  settled  principle  of  action.  Thus  acting 
from  impulse,  he  did  not,  like  William,  calculate  the 
consequences  of  his  conduct.  When  those  consequences 
came,  he  was  not  prepared  to  meet  them ;  he  was  like 
some  unskilful  necromancer,  who  has  neither  the  wit  to 
lay  the  storm  which  he  has  raised,  nor  the  hardihood  to 
brave  it.  He  was  acted  on  by  contrary  influences.  In 
opposition  to  the  po^Dular  movement  came  his  strong 
feeling  of  loyalty,  and  his  stronger  devotion  to  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  faith.  His  personal  vanity  co-operated 
with  these;  for  Egmont  was  too  much  of  a  courtier 
willingly  to  dispense  with  the  smiles  of  royalty.  Thus 
the  opposite  forces  by  which  he  was  impelled  served  to 
neutrq,lize  each  other.  Instead  of  moving  on  a  decided 
line  of  conduct,  like  his  friend,  William  of  Orange,  he 
appeared  weak  and  vacillating.  He  hesitated  where  he 
should  have  acted.  And  as  the  storm  thickened,  he 
even  retraced  his  steps,  and  threw  himself  on  the  mercy 
of  the  monarch  whom  he  had  offended.  William  better 
understood  the  character  of  his  master, — and  that  of 
the  minister  who  was  to  execute  his  decrees.^^ 

33  Morillon,  in  a  letter  to  Granvelle,  dated  August  3d,  1567,  a  iew 
weeks  only  before  Egmont's  arrest,  gives  a  graphic  sketch  of  that 
nobleman,  which,  although  by  no  friendly  hand,  seems  to  be  not 
wholly  without  truth :  "  Ce  seigneur,  y  est-il  dit,  est  haut  et  pre- 
sumant  de  soy,  jusques  \  vouloir  embrasser  le  faict  de  la  republique 
et  le  redressement  d'icelle  et  de  la  religion,  que  ne  sont  pas  de  son 
gibier,  et  est  plus  propre  pour  conduire  une  chasse  ou  volerie,  et,  pour 
dire  tout,  une  bataille,  s'il  fut  este  si  bien  advise  que  de  se  cognoistre 
et  se  mesurer  de  son  pied ;  mais  les  flatteries  perdent  ces  gens,  et  on 
rhilip. — Vol.  II. — m         23 


266     EXECUTION  OF  EGMONT  AND  IIOORNE. 

Still,  with  all  his  deficiencies,  there  was  much  both 
in  the  personal  qualities  of  Egmont  and  in  his  exploits 
to  challenge  admiration.  "I  knew  him,"  says  Bran- 
tome,  "both  in  France  and  in  Spain,  and  never -did  I 
meet  with  a  nobleman  of  higher  breeding,  or  more 
gracious  in  his  manners. ' '  ^  With  an  address  so  win- 
ning, a  heart  so  generous,  and  with  so  brilliant  a 
reputation,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  Egmont  should 
have  been  the  pride  of  his  court  and  the  idol  of  his 
countrymen.  In  their  idolatry  they  could  not  compre- 
hend that  Alva's  persecution  should  not  have  been 
prompted  by  a  keener  feeling  than  a  sense  of  public 
duty  or  obedience  to  his  sovereign.  They  industri- 
ously sought  in  the  earlier  history  of  the  rival  chiefs 
the  motives  for  personal  pique.  On  Alva's  first  visit 
to  the  Netherlands,  Egmont,  then  a  young  man,  was 
said  to  have  won  of  him  a  considerable  sum  at  play. 
The  ill  will  thus  raised  in  Alva's  mind  was  heightened 
by  Egmont's  superiority  over  him  at  a  shooting-match, 
which  the  people,  regarding  as  a  sort  of  national  tri- 
umph, hailed  with  an  exultation  that  greatly  increased 

leur  fait  accroire  qu'ilz  sont  plus  saiges  qu'ilz  ne  sont,  et  ilz  le  croient 
et  se  bouttent  sy  avant,  que  apr^z  ilz  ne  se  peuvent  ravoir,  et  11  est 
force  qu'ilz  facent  le  sault."  Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nas- 
sau,  torn.  i.  p.  Ixix. 

34  "  Je  diray  de  lui  que  c'estoit  le  seigneur  de  la  plus  belle  fa9on  et 
de  la  meilleure  grace  que  j'aye  veu  jamais,  fust  ce  parmy  les  grandz, 
parmy  ses  pairs,  parmy  les  gens  de  guerre,  et  parmy  les  dames,  I'ayant 
veu  en  France  et  en  Espagne,  et  parle  k  luy."  Brantome,  CEuvres, 
torn.  i.  p.  369. — An  old  lady  of  the  French  court,  who  in  her  early 
days  had  visited  Flanders,  assured  Brantome  that  she  had  often  seen 
Egmont,  then  a  mere  youth,  and  that  at  that  time  he  was  excessively 
shy  and  awkward,  so  much  so,  indeed,  that  it  was  a  common  jest  with 
both  the  men  and  women  of  the  court.  Such  was  the  rude  stock 
from  which  at  a  later  day  was  to  spring  the  flower  of  chivalry  1 


CONDUCT  OF  ALVA.  267 

the  mortification  of  the  duke.^s  But  what  filled  up  the 
measure  of  his  jealousy  was  his  rival's  military  renown  ; 
for  the  Fabian  policy  which  directed  Alva's  campaigns, 
however  it  established  his  claims  to  the  reputation  of  a 
great  commander,  was  by  no  means  favorable  to  those 
brilliant  feats  of  arms  which  have  such  attraction  for 
the  multitude.  So  intense,  indeed,  was  the  feeling  of 
hatred,  it  was  said,  in  Alva's  bosom,  that  on  the  day 
of  his  rival's  execution  he  posted  himself  behind  a 
lattice  of  the  very  building  in  which  Egmont  had  been 
confined,  that  he  might  feast  his  eyes  with  the  sight  of 
his  mortal  agony. ^"^ 

The  friends  of  Alva  give  a  very  different  vicAv  of  his 
conduct.  According  to  them,  an  illness  under  which 
he  labored  at  the  close  of  Egmont's  trial  was  occa- 
sioned .by  his  distress  of  mind  at  the  task  imposed  on 
him  by  the  king.  He  had  written  more  than  once  to 
the  court  of  Castile  to  request  some  mitigation  of 
Egmont's  sentence,  but  was  answered  that  "this  would 
have  been  easy  to  grant  if  the  offence  had  been  against 
the  king;  but  against  the  faith,  it  was  impossible." ^^ 

35  "  Postek  in  publica  Isetiiia  dum  uterque  explodendo  ad  signum 
sclopo  ex  provocatione  contenderent,  superatus  esset  Albanus,  ingenti 
Belganim  plausu  ad  nationis  suae  decus  referentium  victoriam  ex 
Duce  Hispano."     Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  391. 

36  Schiller,  in  his  account  of  the  execution  of  the  two  nobles,  tells 
us  that  it  was  from  a  window  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  the  fine  old 
building  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  market-place,  that  Alva  watched 
the  last  struggles  of  his  victims.  The  cicerone,  on  the  other  hand, 
who  shows  the  credulous  traveller  the  ?nemorabilia  of  the  city,  points 
out  the  very  chamber  in  the  Maison  du  Roi  in  which  the  duke 
secreted  himself. —  Valeat  quantum. 

37  "  Qu'il  avoit  procure  de  tout  son  povoir  la  mitigation,  mais  (jue 
Ton  avoit  repondu  que,  si  il  n'y  eut  este  aultre  offence  que  celle  qui 


268      EXECUTION  OF  EGMONT  AND  HOORNE. 

It  was  even  said  that  the  duke  was  so  much  moved  that 
he  was  seen  to  shed  tears  as  big  as  peas  on  the  day  of 
the  execution. 3^ 

I  must  confess,  I  have  never  seen  any  account  that 
would  warrant  a  belief  in  the  report  that  Alva  witnessed 
in  person  the  execution  of  his  prisoners.  Nor,  on  the 
other  hand,  have  I  met  with  any  letter  of  his  depre- 
cating the  severity  of  their  sentence  or  advising  a 
mitigation  of  their  punishment.  This,  indeed,  would 
be  directly  opposed  to  his  policy,  openly  avowed.  The 
reader  may  perhaps  recall  the  homely  simile  by  which 
he  recommended  to  the  queen-mother,  at  Bayonne,  to 
strike  at  the  great  nobles  in  preference  to  the  com- 
moners. "One  salmon,"  he  said,  "was  worth  ten 
thousand  frogs. "^s  Soon  after  Egmont's  arrest,  some 
of  the  burghers  of  Brussels  waited  on  him  to  ask  why 
it  had  been  made.  The  duke  bluntly  told  them, 
"When  he  had  got  together  his  troops,  he  would  let 
them  know. ' '  *"  Every  thing  shows  that  in  his  method 
of  proceeding  in  regard  to  the  two  lords  he  had  acted 
on  a  preconcerted  plan,  in  the  arrangement  of  which 
he  had  taken  his  full  part.  In  a  letter  to  Philip,  written 
soon  after  the  execution,  he  speaks  with  complacency 

touchoit  S.  M.,  le  pardon  fut  este  facille,  mais  qu'elle  ne  pouvoit 
remectre  I'offense  faicte  si  grande  k  Dieu."  Archives  de  la  Maison 
d' Orange-Nassau,  Supplement,  p.  8i. 

38"J'entendz  d'aucuns  que  son  Exc.  at  jecte  des  larrnes  aussi 
grosses  que  poix  au  temps  que  Ton  estoit  sur  ces  executions."  Ibid., 
ubi  supra. — They  must  have  been  as  big  as  crocodiles'  tears. 

39  Ante,  vol.  i.  p.  558. 

f  "  Je  suis  occupe  'k  rcunir  mes  troupes,  Espagnoles,  Italiennes,  et 
Allcmandes  ;  quand  je  serai  pret,  vous  recevrez  ma  r^ponse."  Ar- 
chives de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,  torn,  iii,  p.  xx. 


CONDUCT  OF  ALVA. 


269 


of  having  carried  out  the  royal  views  in  respect  to  the 
great  offenders.'"  In  another,  he  notices  the  sensation 
caused  by  the  death  of  Egmont ;  and  "  the  greater  the 
sensation,"  he  adds,  ''the  greater  will  be  the  benefit 
to  be  derived  from  it."*"  There  is  little  in  all  this  of 
compunction  for  the  act,  or  of  compassion  for  its 
victims. 

The  truth  seems  to  be  that  Alva  was  a  man  of  an 
arrogant  nature,  an  inflexible  will,  and  of  the  most 
narrow  and  limited  views.  His  doctrine  of  implicit 
obedience  went  as  far  as  that  of  Philip  himself.  In  en- 
forcing it,  he  disdained  the  milder  methods  of  argument 
or  conciliation.  It  was  on  force,  brute  force  alone,  that 
he  relied.  He  was  bred  a  soldier,  early  accustomed  to 
the  stern  discipline  of  the  camp.  The  only  law  he 
recognized  was  martial  law;  his  only  argument,  the 
sword.  No  agent  could  have  been  fitter  to  execute 
the  designs  of  a  despotic  prince.  His  hard,  impassible 
nature  was  not  to  be  influenced  by  those  affections 
which  sometimes  turn  the  most  obdurate  from  their 
purpose.  As  little  did  he  know  of  fear;  nor  could 
danger  deter  him  from  carrying  out  his  work.  The 
hatred  he  excited  in  the  Netherlands  was  such  that,  as 
he  was  warned,  it  was  not  safe  for  him  to  go  out  after 
dark.     Placards  were  posted  up  in  Brussels  menacing 

■n  "  II  lui  rend  compte  de  ce  qu'il  a  fait  pour  I'execution  des  ordres 
que  le  Roi  lui  donna  \  son  depart,  et  qui  consistaient  k  arreter  et  fi 
chatier  exemplairement  les  principaux  du  pays  qui  s'etaient  rendus 
coupables  durant  les  troubles."  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II., 
torn.  ii.  p.  29. 

42  "  (^'a  ete  une  chose  de  grand  effet  en  ce  pays,  que  I'execution 
d'Egmont ;  et  plus  grand  a  et6  I'effet,  plus  I'exemple  qu'on  a  vouhi 
faire  sera  fructueux."     Ibid.,  p.  28. 
23* 


270 


EXECUTION  OF  EG  MO  NT  AND  TIOORNE. 


his  life  if  he  persisted  in  the  prosecution  of  Egmont.'*' 
He  held  such  menaces  as  light  as  he  did  the  entreaties 
of  the  countess  or  the  arguments  of  her  counsel.  Far 
from  being  moved  by  personal  considerations,  no  power 
could  turn  him  from  that  narrow  path  which  he  pro- 
fessed to  regard  as  the  path  of  duty.  He  went  surely, 
though  it  might  be  slowly,  towards  the  mark,  crushing 
by  his  iron  will  every  obstacle  that  lay  in  his  track. 
We  shudder  at  the  contemplation  of  such  a  character, 
relieved  by  scarcely  a  single  touch  of  humanity.  Yet 
we  must  admit  there  is  something  which  challenges 
our  admiration  in  the  stern,  uncompromising  manner, 
without  fear  or  favor,  with  which  a  man  of  this  in- 
domitable temper  carries  his  plans  into  execution. 

It  would  not  be  fair  to  omit,  in  this  connection,  some 
passages  from  Alva's  correspondence,  which  suggest  the 
idea  that  he  was  not  wholly  insensible  to  feelings  of 
compassion, — when  they  did  not  interfere  with  the  per- 
formance of  his  task.  In  a  letter  to  the  king,  dated 
the  ninth  of  June,  four  days  only  after  the  death  of  the 
two  nobles,  the  duke  says,  "Your  majesty  will  under- 
stand the  regret  I  feel  at  seeing  these  poor  lords  brought 
to  such  an  end,  and  myself  obliged  to  bring  them  to 
it.'"  But  I  have  not  shrunk  from  doing  what  is  for  your 
majesty's  service.  Indeed,  they  and  their  accomplices 
have  been  the  cause  of  very  great  present  evil,  and  one 
which  will  endanger  the  souls  of  many  for  years  to 

43  Ossorio,  Albce  Vita,  p.  278. 

44  "  V.  M.  peult  considerer  le  regret  que  9a  m'a  estd  de  voir  ces 
pauvres  seigneurs  venus  k  tels  terines,  et  qu'il  ayt  fallut  que  moy 
en  fosse  I'executeur."  Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche, 
p.  252. 


FATE    OF  EG  MO  NTS  FAMILY. 


271 


come.  The  Countess  Egmont's  condition  fills  me  with 
the  greatest  pity,  burdened  as  she  is  with  a  family  of 
eleven  children,  none  old  enough  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves; and  she  too  a  lady  of  so  distinguished  rank, 
sister  of  the  count-palatine,  and  of  so  virtuous,  truly 
Catholic,  and  exemplary  life/^  There  is  no  man  in 
the  country  who  does  not  grieve  for  her !  I  cannot 
but  commend  her,"  he  concludes,  "  as  I  do  now,  very 
humbly,  to  the  good  graces  of  your  majesty,  beseeching 
you  to  call  to  mind  that  if  the  count,  her  husband, 
came  to, trouble  at  the  close  of  his  days,  he  formerly 
rendered  great  service  to  the  state."  '•^  The  reflection, 
it  must  be  owned,  came  somewhat  late. 

In  another  letter  to  Philip,  though  of  the  same  date, 
Alva  recommends  the  king  to  summon  the  countess 
and  her  children  to  Spain,  where  her  daughters  might 
take  the  veil  and  her  sons  be  properly  educated.  "I 
do  not  believe,"  he  adds,  ''that  there  is  so  unfortunate 
a  family  in  the  whole  world.  I  am  not  sure  that  the 
countess  has  the  means  of  procuring  a  supper  this  very 
evening  !"  ""^ 

Philip,  in  answer  to  these  letters,  showed  that  he  was 

<5  "  Madame  d'Egmont  me  faict  grand  pitie  et  compassion,  pour  la 
voir  chargee  de  unze  enfans  et  nuls  addressez,  et  elle,  dame  sy  princi- 
pale,  comme  elle  est,  soeur  du  comte  palatin,  et  de  si  bonne,  vertueuse, 
catholicque  et  exemplaire  vie,  qu'il  n'y  a  homme  qui  ne  la  regrette." 
Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,  ubi  supra. 

46  The  duke  wrote  no  less  than  three  letters  to  the  king,  of  this  same 
date,  June  9th.  The  J> reels  of  two  is  given  by  Gachard,  and  the  third 
is  published  entire  by  Reiffenberg.  The  countess  and  her  misfortunes 
form  the  burden  of  two  of  them. 

47  "  II  ne  croit  pas  qu'il  y  ait  aujourd'hui  sur  la  terre  une  maison 
aussi  malheureuse ;  il  ne  salt  nieme  si  la  comtesse  aura  de  quoi  souper 
ce  soir."     Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii.  p.  28. 


272 


EXECUTION  OF  EGMONT  AND   IIOORNE. 


not  disposed  to  shrink  from  his  own  share  of  responsi- 
bility for  the  proceedings  of  his  general.  The  duke, 
he  said,  had  only  done  what  justice  and  his  duty  de- 
manded.*^ He  could  have  wished  that  the  state  of 
things  had  warranted  a  different  result ;  nor  could  he 
help  feeling  deeply  that  measures  like  those  to  which  he 
had  been  forced  should  have  been  necessary  in  his  reign. 
"But,"  continued  the  king,  "no  man  has  a  right 
to  shrink  from  his  duty."^  I  am  well  pleased,"  he 
concludes,  "to  learn  that  the  two  lords  made  so  good 
and  Catholic  an  end.  As  to  what  you  recommend  in 
regard  to  the  countess  of  Egmont  and  her  eleven  chil- 
dren, I  shall  give  all  proper  heed  to  it."  5° 

The  condition  of  the  countess  might  well  have  moved 
the  hardest  heart  to  pity.  Denied  all  access  to  her  hus- 
band, she  had  been  unable  to  afford  him  that  consola- 
tion which  he  so  much  needed  during  his  long  and 
dreary  confinement.  Yet  she  had  not  been  idle ;  and, 
as  we  have  seen,  she  was  unwearied  in  her  efforts  to 
excite  a  sympathy  in  his  behalf.  Neither  did  she  rely 
only  on  the  aid  which  this  world  can  give  \  and  few 
nights  passed  during  her  lord's  imprisonment  in  which 
she  and  her  daughters  might  not  be  seen  making  their 
pious  pilgrimages,  barefooted,  to  the  different  churches 
of  Brussels,  to  invoke  the  blessing  of  Heaven  on  their 

'^  "  Je  treuve  ce  debvoir  de  justice  estre  faict  comme  il  convient 
et  vostre  consideration  Ir^s-bonne."  Correspondance  de  Marguerite 
d'Autriche,  p.  255. 

49  "  Mais  personne  ne  peult  delaisser  de  se  acquitter  en  ce  en  quoy 
il  est  oblig^."     Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 

so  "Quant  h  la  dame  d'Egmont  et  ses  unze  enfans,  et  ce  que  me 
y  repr^sentez,  en  me  les  recommandant,  je  y  auray  tout  bon  regard." 
Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


FATE    OF  EG  MO  NT'S  FAMILY. 


273 


labors.  She  had  been  supported  through  this  trying 
time  by  a  reliance  on  the  success  of  her  endeavors,  in 
which  she  was  confirmed  by  the  encouragement  she 
received  from  the  highest  quarters. '  It  is  not  necessary 
to  give  credit  to  the  report  of  a  brutal  jest  attributed 
to  the  duke  of  Alva,  who,  on  the  day  preceding  the 
execution,  was  said  to  have  told  the  countess  "to  be 
of  good  cheer ;  for  her  husband  would  leave  the  prison 
on  the  morrow  ! "  s'  There  is  more  reason  to  believe 
that  the. Emperor  Maximilian,  shortly  before  the  close 
of  the  trial,  sent  a  gentleman  with  a  kind  letter  to  the 
countess,  testifying  the  interest  he  took  in  her  affairs 
and  assuring  her  she  had  nothing  to  fear  on  account 
of  her  husband. 5^  On  the  very  morning  of  Egmont's 
execution,  she  was  herself,  we  are  told,  paying  a  visit 
of  condolence  to  the  countess  of  Aremberg,  whose  hus- 
band had  lately  fallen  in  the  battle  of  Heyligerlee ;  and 
at  her  friend's  house  the  poor  lady  is  said  to  have  re- 
ceived the  first  tidings  of  the  fate  of  her  lord.^^ 

The  blow  fell  the  heavier,  that  she  was  so  ill  prepared 
for  it.  On  the  same  day  she  found  herself  not  only  a 
widow,  but  a  beggar, — with  a  family  of  orphan  chil- 
dren in  vain  looking  up  to  her  for  the  common  neces- 
saries of  life.s^    In  her  extremity,  she  resolved  to  apply 

S'  Arend  (Algemeene  Geschiedenis  des  Vaderlands,  D.  ii.  St.  v. 
bl.  66 j,  who  gets  the  story,  to  which  he  attaches  no  credit  himself, 
from  a  contemporary,  Hooft. 

52  Supplement  k  Strada,  torn.  i.  p.  252. 

53  "  Laquelle,  ainsi  quelle  estoit  en  sa  chambre  et  sur  ces  propos, 
on  luy  vint  annoncer  qu'on  alloit  trancher  la  teste  k  son  mary." 
Brantome,  CEuvres,  tom.  i.  p.  368. — Under  all  the  circumstances,  one 
cannot  insist  strongly  on  the  probability  of  the  anecdote. 

S'l  One  of  her  daughters,  in  a  fit  of  derangement  brought  on  by 
M* 


274 


EXECUTION  OF  EG  MONT  AND  IIOORNE. 


to  the  king  himself.  She  found  an  apology  for  it  in 
the  necessity  of  transmitting  to  Philip  her  husband's 
letter  to  him,  which,  it  seems,  had  been  intrusted  to 
her  care. 55  She  apologizes  for  not  sooner  sending  this 
last  and  most  humble  petition  of  her  deceased  lord,  by 
the  extreme  wretchedness  of  her  situation,  abandoned 
as  she  is  by  all,  far  from  kindred  and  country. ^^  She 
trusts  in  his  majesty's  benignity  and  compassion ^^  to 
aid  her  sons  by  receiving  them  into  his  service  when 
they  shall  be  of  sufficient  age.  This  will  oblige  her, 
during  the  remainder  of  her  sad  days,  and  her  children 
after  her,  to  pray  God  for  the  long  and  happy  life  of 
his  majesty. 5^  It  must  have  given  another  pang  to  the 
heart  of  the  widowed  countess  to  have  been  thus  forced 
to  solicit  aid  from  the  very  hand  that  had  smitten  her. 
But  it  was  the  mother  pleading  for  her  children. 

Yet  Philip,  notwithstanding  his  assurances  to  the 
duke  of  Alva,  showed  no  alacrity  in  relieving  the 
wants  of  the  countess.     On  the  first  of  September  the 

excessive  grief  for  her  father's  fate,  attempted  to  make  way  with  hei- 
self  by  throwing  herself  from  a  window.    Relacion  de  la  Justicia,  MS. 

55  This  was  the  duplicate,  no  doubt,  of  the  letter  given  to  the  bishop 
of  Ypres,  to  whom  Egmont  may  have  intrusted  a  copy,  with  the  idea 
that  it  would  be  more  certain  to  reach  the  hands  of  the  king  than  the 
one  sent  to  his  wife. 

56  "  La  mis^re  oia  elle  se  trouve,  etant  devenue  veuve  avec  onze 
enfans,  abandonee  de  tous,  hors  de  son  pays  et  loin  de  ses  parents, 
I'a  empechee  d'envoyer  plus  tot  au  Roi  la  derniere  et  tr^s-humble 
requete  de  son  defunt  mari."      Conespondance  de  Philippe  II.,  tom. 

ii.  p.  31- 

57  "  De  la  b^nignit^  et  piti^  du  Roi."     Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 

58  "  Ce  que  m'obligerat,  le  reste  de  mes  tristcs  jours,  et  toute  ma 
posloiite,  k  prier  Dieu  pour  la  longue  et  heureuse  vie  de  V.  M." 
Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


FATE    OF  EGMONT'S  FAMILY. 


275 


duke  again  wrote  to  urge  the  necessity  of  her  case,  de- 
claring that,  if  it  had  not  been  for  a  "small  sum  that 
he  had  himself  sent,  she  and  the  children  would  have 
perished  of  hunger  ! "  ^9 

The  misfortunes  of  this  noble  lady  excited  com- 
miseration not  only  at  home,  but  in  other  countries 
of  Europe,  and  especially  in  Germany,  the  land  of  her 
birth. ^  Her  brother,  the  elector  of  Bavaria,  wrote  to 
Philip  to  urge  the  restitution  of  her  husband's  estates 
to  his  family.  Other  German  princes  preferred  the 
same  request,  which  was  moreover  formally  made  by  the 
emperor,  through  his  ambassador  at  Madrid.  Philip 
coolly  replied  that  ''the  time  for  this  had  not  yet 
come."*'  A  moderate  pension,  meanwhile,  was  annu- 
ally paid  by  Alva  to  the  countess  of  Egmont,  who  sur- 
vived her  husband  ten  years, — not  long  enough  to  see 
her  children  established  in  possession  of  their  patri- 
mony.*^   Shortly  before  her  death,  her  eldest  son,  then 

59  "  S'il  ne  leur  avait  pas  doiine  quelque  argent,  ils  mourraient  de 
faim."     Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii.  p.  38. 

*>  It  seems  strange  that  Goethe,  in  his  tragedy  of  "  Egmont,"  should 
have  endeavored  to  excite  what  may  be  truly  called  a  meretricious 
interest  in  the  breasts  of  his  audience,  by  bringing  an  imaginary  mis- 
tress, named  Clara,  on  the  stage,  instead  of  the  noble-hearted  wife,  so 
much  better  qualified  to  share  the  fortunes  of  her  husband  and  give 
dignity  to  his  sufferings.  Independently  of  other  considerations,  this 
departure  from  historic  truth  cannot  be  defended  on  any  true  principle 
of  drcunatic  effect. 

6'  Raumer,  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  183. 

^2  After  an  annual  grant,  which  rose  from  eight  to  twelve  thousand 
livres,  the  duke  settled  on  her  a  pension  of  two  thousand  gulden, 
which  continued  to  the  time  of  her  death,  in  1578.  (Arend,  Alge- 
meene  Geschiedenis  des  Vaderlands,  D.  ii.  St.  r.  bl.  66.)  The  gulden, 
or  guilder,  at  the  present  day,  is  equivalent  to  about  one  shilling  and 
ninepence  sterling,  or  thirty-nine  cents. 


276     EXECUTION  OF  EG  MO  NT  AND  HOORNE. 

grown  to  man's  estate,  chafing  under  the  sense  of  in- 
justice to  himself  and  his  family,  took  part  in  the  war 
against  the  Spaniards.  Philip,  who  may  perhaps  have 
felt  some  compunction  for  the  ungenerous  requital  he 
had  made  for  the  father's  services,  not  only  forgave 
this  act  of  disloyalty  in  the  son,  but  three  years  later 
allowed  the  young  man  to  resume  his  allegiance  and 
placed  him  in  full  possession  of  the  honors  and  estates 
of  his  ancestors. *5 

Alva,  as  we  have  seen,  in  his  letters  to  Philip,  had 
dwelt  on  the  important  effects  of  Egmont's  execution. 
He  did  not  exaggerate  these  effects.  But  he  sorely 
mistook  the  nature  of  them.  Abroad,  the  elector  of 
Bavaria  at  once  threw  his  whole  weight  into  the  scale 
of  Orange  and  the  party  of  reform.**  Others  of  the 
German  princes  followed  his  example ;  and  Maxi- 
milian's ambassador  at  Madrid  informed  Philip  that 
the  execution  of  the  two  nobles,  by  the  indignation 
it  had  caused  throughout  Germany,  had  wonderfully 
served  the  designs  of  the  prince  of  Orange. ^^ 

At  home  the  effects  were  not  less  striking.  The  death 
of  these  two  illustrious  men,  following  so  close  upon 

63  Philip,  Count  Egmont,  lived  to  enjoy  his  ancestral  honors  till 
1590,  when  he  was  slain  at  Ivry,  fighting  against  Henry  the  Fourth 
and  the  Protestants  of  France.  He  died  without  issue,  and  was 
succeeded  by  his  brother  Lamoral,  a  careless  prodigal,  who  with  the 
name  seems  to  have  inherited  few  of  the  virtues  of  his  illustrious 
father.  Arend,  Algemeene  Geschiedenis  des  Vaderlands,  D.  ii.  St.  v. 
bl.  66. 

^■t  Vandervynckt,  Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  p.  259. 

^  "  La  mort  des  comtes  d'Egmont  et  de  Homes,  et  ce  qui  s'est 
pass6  avec  I'elccteur  de  Treves,  servent  merveilleusemcnt  ses  des- 
seins."     Correspondance  de  Philippe  H.,  torn.  ii.  p.  37. 


SENTIMENT  OF  THE   PEOPLE. 


277 


the  preceding  executions,  spread  a  deep  gloom  over  the 
country.  Men  became  possessed  with  the  idea  that  the 
reign  of  blood  was  to  be  perpetual.**  All  confidence 
was  destroyed,  even  that  confidence  which  naturally 
exists  between  parent  and  child,  between  brother  and 
brother.  *7  The  foreign  merchant  caught  somewhat  of 
this  general  distrust,  and  refused  to  send  his  commodi- 
ties to  a  country  where  they  were  exposed  to  confisca- 
tion.® Yet  among  the  inhabitants  indignation  was 
greater  than  even  fear  or  sorrow  ;*9  and  the  Flemings 
who  had  taken  part  in  the  prosecution  of  Egmont 
trembled  before  the  wrath  of  an   avenging  people. '° 

^  "  Les  executions  faites  ont  imprime  dans  les  esprits  une  terreur 
si  grande,  qu'on  croit  qu'il  s'agit  de  gouverner  par  le  sang  d.  perpe- 
tuite."     Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii.  p.  29. 

*7  "  II  n'y  a  plus  de  confiance  du  frere  au  frfere,  et  du  p^re  au  fils." 
Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 

^  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 

*9  "  Funestum  Egmontii  finem  doluere  Belgse  odio  majore,  qu^m 
luctu."     Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  394. 

70  The  Flemish  councillor,  Hessels,  who,  it  may  be  remembered, 
had  particular  charge  of  the  provincial  prosecutions,  incurred  still 
greater  odium  by  the  report  of  his  being  employed  to  draft  the  sen- 
tences of  the  two  lords.  He  subsequently  withdrew  from  the  bloody 
tribunal,  and  returned  to  his  native  province,  where  he  became  vice- 
president  of  the  council  of  Flanders.  This  new  accession  of  dignity 
only  made  him  a  more  conspicuous  mark  for  the  public  hatred.  In 
1577.  in  a  popular  insurrection  which  overturned  the  government  of 
Ghent,  Hessels  was  dragged  from  his  house  and  thrown  into  prison. 
After  lying  there  a  year,  a  party  of  ruffians  broke  into  the  place, 
forced  him  into  a  carriage,  and,  taking  him  a  short  distance  from 
town,  executed  the  summary  justice  of  Lynch  law  on  their  victim  by 
hanging  him  to  a  tree.  Some  of  the  party,  after  the  murder,  wern 
audacious  enough  to  return  to  Ghent  with  locks  of  the  giay  hair  of 
the  wretched  man  displayed  in  triumph  on  their  bonnets.  Some 
years  later,  when  the  former  authorities  were  re-established,  the  bones 
Philip.— Vol.  IT.  24 


278      EXECUTION  OF  EGMONT  AND  HOORNE. 

Such  were  the  effects  produced  by  the  execution  of 
men  whom  the  nation  reverenced  as  martyrs  in  the 
cause  of  freedom.  Alva  notices  these  consequences  in 
his  letters  to  the  king.  But,  though  he  could  discern 
the  signs  of  the  times,  he  little  dreamed  of  the  extent 
of  the  troubles  they  portended.  "The  people  of  this 
country,"  he  writes,  ''are  of  so  easy  a  temper  that, 
when  your  majesty  shall  think  fit  to  grant  them  a  gen- 
eral pardon,  your  clemency,  I  trust,  will  make  them  as 
prompt  to  render  you  their  obedience  as  they  are  now 
reluctant  to  do  it."^'  The  haughty  soldier,  in  his  con- 
tempt for  the  peaceful  habits  of  a  burgher  population, 
comprehended  as  little  as  his  master  the  true  character 
of  the  men  of  the  Netherlands. 

of  Hessels  were  removed  from  their  unhallowed  burial-place  and  laid 
with  great  solemnity  and  funeral  pomp  in  the  church  of  St.  Michael. 
Prose  and  verse  were  exhausted  in  his  praise.  His  memory  was 
revered  as  that  of  a  martyr.  Miracles  were  performed  at  his  tomb ; 
and  the  popular  credulity  went  so  far  that  it  was  currently  reported  in 
Ghent  that  Philip  had  solicited  the  pope  for  his  canonization !  See 
the  curious  particulars  in  Vandervynckt,  Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  tom. 
ii.  pp.  451-456. 

71  "  Este  es  un  pueblo  tan  facil,  que  espero  que  con  ver  la  cle- 
mencia  de  V.  M.,  haciendose  el  pardon  general,  se  ganardn  los  ^imos 
k  que  de  buena  gana  lleven  la  obediencia  que  digo,  que  ahora  sufren 
de  malo."     Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  tom.  ii.  p.  29. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SECRET  EXECUTION  OF  MONTIGNY. 

Bergen  and  Montigny. — Their  Situation  in  Spain. — Death  of  Bergen. 
— Arrest  of  Montigny. — Plot  for  his  Escape. — His  Process. — Re- 
moval to  Simancas. — Closer  Coniinement. — Midnight  Execution. 

I567-I57O. 

Before  bidding  a  long  adieu  to  the  Netherlands,  it 
will  be  well  to  lay  before  the  reader  an  account  of  a 
transaction  which  has  proved  a  fruitful  theme  of  specu- 
lation to  the  historian,  but  which  until  the  present 
time  has  been  shrouded  in  impenetrable  mystery. 

It  may  be  remembered  that  in  the  year  1566  two 
noble  Flemings,  the  marquis  of  Bergen  and  the  baron 
of  Montigny,  were  sent  on  a  mission  to  the  court  of 
Madrid,  to  lay  before  the  king  the  critical  state  of 
affairs,  imperatively  demanding  some  change  in  the 
policy  of  the  government.  The  two  lords  went  on 
the  mission ;  but  they  never  returned.  Many  conjec- 
tures were  made  respecting  their  fate ;  and  historians 
have  concluded  that  Bergen  possibly,'  and  certainly 
Montigny,  came  to  their  end  by  violence.*     But  in  the 

»  "  Le  bniit  public  qui  subsiste  encore,  divulgue  qu'il  est  mort  em- 
poisonn^."  Vandervynckt,  Troubles  des  Pays-Has,  torn.  ii.  p.  235. — 
The  author  himself  does  not  endorse  the  vulgar  rumor. 

*  Meteren  tells  us  that  Montigny  was  killed  by  poison  which  his 
page,  who  afterwards  confessed  the  crime,  pu*  in  his  broth.     (Hist. 

(279) 


2So       SECRET  EXECUTION  OF  MONTIGNY. 

want  of  evidence  it  was  only  conjecture ;  while  the 
greatest  discrepancy  has  prevailed  in  regard  to  details. 
It  is  not  till  very  recently  that  the  veil  has  been  with- 
drawn through  the  access  that  has  been  given  to  the 
Archives  of  Simancas,  that  dread  repository  in  which 
the  secrets  of  the  Castilian  kings  have  been  buried  for 
ages.  Independently  of  the  interest  attaching  to  the 
circumstances  of  the  present  narrative,  it  is  of  great 
importance  for  the  light  it  throws  on  the  dark  unscru- 
pulous policy  of  Philip  the  Second.  It  has,  moreover, 
the  merit  of  resting  on  the  most  authentic  grounds,  the 
correspondence  of  the  king  and  his  ministers. 

Both  envoys  were  men  of  the  highest  consideration. 
The  marquis  of  Bergen,  by  his  rank  and  fortune,  was 
in  the  first  class  of  the  Flemish  aristocracy. ^  Montigny 
was  of  the  ancient  house  of  the  Montmorencys,  being 
a  younger  brother  of  the  unfortunate  Count  Hoorne. 
He  occupied  several  important  posts, — ^among  others, 
that  of  governor  of  Tournay, — and,  like  Bergen,  was  a 
knight  of  the  Golden  Fleece.  In  the  political  disturb- 
ances of  the  time,  although  not  placed  in  the  front 
of  disaffection,  the  two  lords  had  taken  part  with  the 
discontented  faction,  had  joined  in  the  war  upon  Gran- 
velle,  and  had  very  generally  disapproved  of  the  policy 
of  the  crown.  They  had,  especially,  raised  their  voices 
against  the  system  of  religious  persecution,  with  a  manly 

des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  60.)  Vandervynckt,  after  noticing  various  rumors, 
dismisses  them  with  the  remark,  "  On  n'a  pu  savoir  au  juste  ce  qu'il 
6tait  devenu."     Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  p.  237. 

3  His  revenues  seem  to  have  been  larger  than  those  of  any  other 
Flemish  lord,  except  Egmont  and  Orange, — amounting  to  something 
more  than  fifty  thousand  florins  annually.  Correspondance  de  Phi- 
lippe II.,  tom.  ii.  p.  115. 


BERGEN  AND  MONTIGNY.  281 

independence  which  had  secured  for  them — it  seems 
undeservedly — the  reputation  of  being  the  advocates  of 
religious  reform.  This  was  particularly  the  case  with 
Bergen,  who,  to  one  that  asked  how  heretics  should  be 
dealt  with,  replied,  "  If  they  were  willing  to  be  con- 
verted, I  would  not  trouble  them.  If  they  refused, 
still  I  would  not  take  their  lives,  as  they  might  here- 
after be  converted."  This  saying,  duly  reported  to 
the  ears  of  Philip,  was  doubtless  treasured  up  against 
the  man  who  had  the  courage  to  utter  it."* 

The  purpose  of  their  embassy  was  to  urge  on  the 
king  the  necessity  of  a  more  liberal  and  lenient  policy, 
to  which  Margaret,  who  had  not  yet  broken  with  the 
nobles,  was  herself  inclined.  It  was  not  strange  that 
the  two  lords  should  have  felt  the  utmost  reluctance  to 
undertake  a  mission  which  was  to  bring  them  so  directly 
within  the  power  of  the  monarch  whom  they  knew  they 
had  offended,  and  who,  as  they  also  knew,  was  not  apt 
to  forgive  an  offence.  True,  Egmont  had  gone  on  a 
similar  mission  to  Madrid  and  returned  uninjured  to 
Brussels.  But  it  was  at  an  earlier  period,  when  the 
aspect  of  things  was  not  so  dangerous.  His  time  had 
not  yet  come. 

It  was  not  till  after  much  delay  that  the  other  nobles, 
with  the  regent,  prevailed  on  Bergen  and  Montigny  to 
accept  the  trust,  by  urging  on  them  its  absolute  impor- 
tance for  assuring  the  tranquillity  of  the  country.  Even 
then,  an  injury  which  confined  the  marquis  some  weeks 

4  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  Rapport,  p.  xxxvii. — It  was  re- 
ported to  Philip's  secretary,  Erasso,  by  that  mischievous  bigot.  Fray 
Lorenzo  Villavicencio,  not,  as  njay  be  supposed,  to  do  honor  to  the 
author  of  it,  but  to  ruin  him. 

24* 


282       SECRET  EXECUTION  OF  MONTIGNY. 

to  his  house  furnished  him  with  a  plausible  excuse  for 
not  performing  his  engagement,  of  which  he  would 
gladly  have  availed  himself.  But  his  scruples  again 
vanished  before  the  arguments  and  entreaties  of  his 
friends;  and  he  consented  to  follow,  as  he  could  not 
accompany,  Montigny. 

The  latter  reached  Madrid  towards  the  middle  of 
June,  1566,  was  graciously  received  by  the  king,  and 
was  admitted  to  repeated  audiences,  at  which  he  did 
not  fail  to  urge  the  remedial  measures  countenanced  by 
Margaret.  Philip  appeared  to  listen  with  complacency, 
but  declined  giving  an  answer  till  the  arrival  of  the 
other  ambassador,  who,  having  already  set  out  on  his 
journey,  was  attacked,  on  his  way  through  France,  by 
a  fever.  There  Bergen  halted,  and  again  thought  of 
abandoning  the  expedition.  His  good  genius  seemed 
ever  willing  to  interpose  to  save  him.  But  his  evil 
genius,  in  the  shape  of  Philip,  who  wrote  to  him  in 
the  most  condescending  terms,  to  hasten  his  journey, 
beckoned  him  to  Madrid. ^ 

Besides  the  two  envoys  there  was  another  person  of 
consequence  from  the  Low  Countries  at  that  time  in 
the  capital, — Simon  Renard,  once  Charles's  minister 
at  the  English  court,  the  inexorable  foe  of  Granvelle. 
He  had  been  persuaded  by  Philip  to  come  to  Spain, 
although  to  do  so,  he  knew,  was  to  put  himself  on 
trial  for  his  manifold  offences  against  the  government. 
He  was  arrested,  proceedings  were  commenced  against 
him,  and  he  was  released  only  by  an  illness  which 
terminated  in  his  death.  There  seems  to  have  been  a 
mysterious  fascination  possessed  by  Philip,  that  he 
5  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  439. 


THEIR   SITUATION  IN  SPAIN. 


283 


could  thus  draw  within  his  reach  the  very  men  whom 
every  motive  of  self-preservation  should  have  kept  at 
an  immeasurable  distance. 

The  arrival  of  the  marquis  did  not  expedite  the 
business  of  the  mission.  Unfortunately,  about  that 
period  news  came  to  Madrid  of  the  outbreak  of  the 
iconoclasts,  exciting  not  merely  in  Spain,  but  through- 
out Christendom,  feelings  of  horror  and  indignation. 
There  was  no  longer  a  question  as  to  a  more  temperate 
policy.  The  only  thought  now  was  of  vengeance.  It 
was  in  vain  that  the  Flemish  envoys  interposed  to 
mitigate  the  king's  anger  and  turn  him  from  those 
violent  measures  which  must  bring  ruin  on  the  coun- 
try. Their  remonstrances  were  unheeded.  They  found 
access  to  his  person  by  no  means  so  easy  a  thing  as 
before.  They  felt  that  somewhat  of  the  odium  of  the 
late  transactions  attached  to  them.  Even  the  courtiers, 
with  the  ready  instinct  that  detects  a  sovereign's  frown, 
grew  cold  in  their  deportment.  The  situation  of  the 
envoys  became  every  day  more  uncomfortable.  Their 
mission  was  obviously  at  an  end,  and  all  they  now 
asked  was  leave  to  return  to  the  Netherlands. 

But  the  king  had  no  mind  to  grant  it.  He  had  been 
long  since  advised  by  Granvelle,  and  others  in  whom 
he  trusted,  that  both  the  nobles  had  taken  a  decided 
part  in  fostering  the  troubles  of  the  country.*    To  that 

6  See  the  letters  of  the  royal  contador,  Alonzo  del  Canto,  from  Brus- 
sels. (Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  pp.  411,  425.)  Gran- 
velle, in  a  letter  from  Rome,  chimes  in  with  the  same  tune, — though, 
as  usual  with  the  prelate,  in  a  more  covert  manner:  "  Le  choix  de 
Berghes  et  Montigny  n'est  pas  mauvais,  si  le  but  de  leur  mission  est 
d'informer  le  Roi  de  I'etat  des  choses:  car  ils  sont  ceux  qui  en  ont  le 
mieux  connaissance,  et  qui  peut-Stre  y  ont  pris  le  plus  de  part."  Ibid., 
p.  417. 


284       SECRET  EXECUTION  OF  MONTIGNY. 

country  they  were  never  to  return.  Philip  told  them 
he  had  need  of  their  presence  for  some  time  longer, 
to  advise  with  him  on  the  critical  state  of  affairs  in 
Flanders.  So  thin  a  veil  could  not  impose  on  them ; 
and  they  were  filled  with  the  most  serious  apprehen- 
sions. They  wrote  to  Margaret,  begging  her  to  request 
the  king  to  dismiss  them ;  otherwise  they  should  have 
good  cause  to  complain  both  of  her  and  of  the  nobles, 
who  had  sent  them  on  a  mission  from  which  they  would 
gladly  have  been  excused. ^  But  Margaret  had  already 
written  to  her  brother  to  keep  them  in  Spain  until  the 
troubles  in  Flanders  should  be  ended. ^  On  the  recep- 
tion of  the  letter  of  her  envoys,  however,  she  replied 
that  she  had  already  written  to  the  king  to  request  leave 
for  them  to  return. ^  I  have  found  no  record  of  such  a 
letter. 

In  the  spring  of  1567,  the  duke  of  Alva  was  sent  to 
take  command  in  the  Netherlands.  Such-  an  appoint- 
ment, at  such  a  crisis,  plainly  intimated  the  course  to 
be  pursued,  and  the  host  of  evils  it  would  soon  bring  on 
the  devoted  country.  The  conviction  of  this  was  too 
much  for  Bergen,  heightened  as  his  distress  was  by  his 
separation,  at  such  a  moment,  from  all  that  was  most 

7  "  Autrement,  certes,  Madame,  aurions  juste  occasion  de  nous 
doloir  et  de  V.  A.  et  des  seigneurs  de  par  delk,  pour  nous  avoir  com- 
mande  de  venir  ici,  pour  recevoir  honte  et  desplaisir,  estantz  forces 
journellement  de  veoir  et  oyr  choses  qui  nos  desplaisent  jusques  ^ 
I'ame,  et  de  veoir  aussy  le  peu  que  S.  M.  se  sert  de  nous."  Cor- 
respondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  498. 

8  This  letter  is  dated  November  i8th,  1566.  (Ibid.,  p.  486.)  The 
letter  of  the  two  lords  was  written  on  the  last  day  of  the  December 
following, 

9  Her  letter  is  dated  March  Sth,  1567.     Ibid.,  p.  516. 


DEATH  OF  BERGEN. 


285 


dear  to  him  on  earth.  He  fell  ill  of  a  fever,  and  grew 
rapidly  worse,  till  at  length  it  was  reported  to  Philip 
that  there  was  no  chance  for  his  recovery  unless  he 
were  allowed  to  return  to  his  native  land." 

This  placed  the  king  in  a  perplexing  dilemma.  He 
was  not  disposed  to  let  the  marquis  escape  from  his 
hands  even  by  the  way  of  a  natural  death.  He  was 
still  less  inclined  to  assent  to  his  return  to  Flanders. 
In  this  emergency  he  directed  Ruy  Gomez,  the  prince 
of  Eboli,  to  visit  the  sick  nobleman,  who  was  his 
personal  friend.  In  case  Gomez  found  the  marquis  so 
ill  that  his  recovery  was  next  to  impossible,  he  was  to 
give  him  the  king's  permission  to  return  home.  If, 
however,  there  seemed  a  prospect  of  his  recovery,  he 
was  only  to  hold  out  the  hope  of  such  a  permission." 
In  case  of  the  sick  man's  death,  Gomez  was  to  take 
care  to  have  his  obsequies  performed  in  such  a  way 
as  to  show  the  sorrow  of  the  king  and  his  ministers 
at  his  loss,  and  their  respect  for  the  lords  of  the  Low 
Countries  ! "  He  was  moreover,  in  that  event,  to  take 
means  to  have  the  marquis's  property  in  the  Nether- 
lands sequestrated,  as,  should  rebellion  be  proved 
against  him,  it  would  be  forfeited  to  the  crown.  This 
curious  and,  as  it  must  be  allowed,  highly  confidential 

"  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  535. 

''  "  De  lui  dire  (mais  seulement  apres  qu'il  se  sera  assure  qu'une 
gudrison  est  \  peu  prfes  impossible)  que  le  Roi  lui  permet  de  retoumer 
aux  Pays-Bas :  si,  au  contraire,  il  lui  paraissait  que  le  marquis  put  se 
r^tablir,  il  se  contcnterait  de  lui  faire  esperer  cette  permission."  Ibid.. 

P-  535- 

'-  "  II  sera  bien,  en  cette  occasion,  de  montrer  le  regret  que  le  Roi 
et  ses  ministres  ont  de  sa  mort,  et  le  cas  qu'ils  font  des  seigneurs  des 
Pays-Bas  1"     Ibid.,  p.  536. 


286       SECRET  EXECUTION  OF  MONTIGNY. 

epistle  was  written  with  the  king's  own  hand.  The 
address  ran,  "  Ruy  Gomez — to  his  hands.  Not  to  be 
opened  nor  read  in  the  presence  of  the  bearer." 

Wliicli  part  of  the  royal  instruction  the  minister 
thought  best  to  follow  for  the  cure  of  the  patient — 
whether  he  gave  him  an  unconditional  permission  to 
return,  or  only  held  out  the  hope  that  he  would  do  so — - 
we  are  not  informed.  It  matters  little,  however.  The 
marquis,  it  is  probable,  had  already  learned  not  to  put 
his  trust  in  princes.  At  all  events,  the  promises  of  the 
king  did  as  little  for  the  patient  as  the  prescriptions  of 
the  doctor.  On  the  twenty-first  of  May  he  died, — 
justifying  the  melancholy  presentiment  with  which  he 
had  entered  on  his  mission. 

Montigny  was  the  only  victim  that  now  remained  to 
Philip ;  and  he  caused  him  to  be  guarded  with  redoubled 
vigilance.  He  directed  Ruy  Gomez  to  keep  an  eye  on 
all  his  movements,  and  to  write  to  the  governors  of 
Navarre,  Catalonia,  and  other  frontier  places,  to  take 
precautions  to  intercept  the  Flemish  lord  in  case  of  his 
attempting  to  fly  the  country. '^  Montigny  was  in  fact 
a  prisoner,  with  Madrid  for  the  limits  of  his  prison. 
Yet,  after  this,  the  regent  could  write  to  him  from 
Brussels  that  she  was  pleased  to  learn  from  her  brother 
that  he  was  soon  to  give  him  his  conge.''*  If  the  king 
said  this,  he  had  a  bitter  meaning  in  his  words,  beyond 
what  the  duchess  apprehended. 

It  was  not  long,  however,  that  Montigny  was  allowed 
to  retain  even  this  degree  of  liberty.     In  September, 

'3  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  ubi  supra. 

M  "  EUe  espi^re  le  voir  sous  peu,  puisque  le  Roi  lu'  a  fait  dire  que 
son  intention  ^tait  de  lui  donner  bient6t  son  conge."  Ibid.,  p.  558. — 
The  letter  is  dated  July  13th. 


HIS  ARREST.  287 

1567,  arrived  the  tidings  of  the  arrest  of  the  Counts 
Egmont  and  Hoorne.  Orders  were  instantly  issued  for 
the  arrest  of  Montigny.  He  was  seized  by  a  detach- 
ment of  the  royal  guard  and  borne  off  to  the  alcazar 
of  Segovia. 's  He  was  not  to  be  allowed  to  leave  the 
fortress  day  or  night ;  but  as  much  indulgence  was 
shown  to  him  as  was  compatible  with  this  strict  con- 
finement;  and  he  was  permitted  to  take  with  him  the 
various  retainers  who  composed  his  household,  and  to 
maintain  his  establishment  in  prison.  But  what  in- 
dulgence could  soften  the  bitterness  of  a  captivity  far 
from  kindred  and  country,  with  the  consciousness, 
moreover,  that  the  only  avenue  from  his  prison  con- 
ducted to  the  scaffold  ! 

In  his  extremity,  Montigny  looked  around  for  the 
means  of  effecting  his  own  escape ;  and  he  nearly 
succeeded.  One,  if  not  more,  of  the  Spaniards  on 
guard,  together  with  his  own  servants,  were  in  the 
plot.  It  was  arranged  that  the  prisoner  should  file 
through  the  bars  of  a  window  in  his  apartment  and 
lower  himself  to  the  ground  by  means  of  a  rope  ladder. 
Relays  of  horses  were  provided  to  take  him  rapidly  on 
to  the  sea-port  of  Santander,  in  the  north,  whence  he 
was  to  be  transported  in  a  shallop  to  St.  Jean  de  Luz. 
The  materials  for  executing  his  part  of  the  work  were 
conveyed  to  Montigny  in  the  loaves  of  bread  daily  sent 
to  him  by  his  baker.  Every  thing  seemed  to  promise 
success.      The   bars  of  the  window  were  removed.'^ 

'5  The  order  for  the  arrest,  addressed  to  the  conde  de  Chinchon, 
alcayde  of  the  castle  of  Segovia,  is  to  be  found  in  the  Documentos 
in^ditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  526. 

»'  This  fact  is  mentioned  in  a  letter  of  the  alcayde  of  the  fortress, 


288       SECRET  EXECUTION  OF  MONTIGNY. 

They  waited  only  for  a  day  when  the  alcayde  of  the 
castle  would  not  be  likely  to  visit  it.  At  this  juncture 
the  plot  was  discovered  through  the  carelessness  of  the 
maitre-d''  hotel. 

This  person  neglected  to  send  one  of  the  loaves  to 
his  master,  which  contained  a  paper  giving  sundry 
directions  respecting  the  mode  of  escape  and  men- 
tioning the  names  of  several  of  the  parties.  The  loaf 
fell  into  the  hands  of  a  soldier. '^  On  breaking  it,  the 
paper  was  discovered,  and  taken  by  him  to  the  captain 
of  the  guard.  The  plot  was  laid  open ;  the  parties  were 
arrested,  and  sentenced  to  death  or  the  galleys.  The 
king  allowed  the  sentence  to  take  effect  in  regard  to 
the  Spaniards.  He  granted  a  reprieve  to  the  Flem- 
ings, saying  that  what  they  had  done  was  in  some  sort 
excusable,  as  being  for  the  service  of  their  master. 
Besides,  they  might  be  of  use  hereafter,  in  furnishing 
testimony  in  the  prosecution  of  Montigny.'^  On  this 
compound  principle  their  lives  were  spared.  After 
languishing  some  time  in  prison,  they  were  allowed  to 
return  to  the  Low  Countries,  bearing  with  them  letters 
from  Montigny,  requesting  his  friends  to  provide  for 
them  in  consideration  of  their  sacrifices  for  him.     But 

giving  an  account  of  the  affair  to  the  king.  Correspondance  de 
Phihppe  II.,  torn.  ii.  p.  33. 

»7  The  contents  of  the  paper  secreted  in  the  loaf  are  given  in  the 
Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  pp.  527-533. — The  latter  portion  of  the 
fourth  volume  of  this  valuable  collection  is  occupied  with  documents 
relating  to  the  imprisonment  and  death  of  Montigny,  drawn  from  the 
Archives  of  Simancas,  and  never  before  communicated  to  the  public. 

»8  "  II  ne  les  fera  point  executer,  mais  il  les  retiendra  en  prison,  car 
jls  peuvent  servir  k  la  verification  de  quelque  point  du  proems  de 
Montigny  lui-meme."  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii.  p. 
37- 


HIS  PROCESS.  289 

they  were  provided  for  in  a  much  more  summary 
manner  by  Alva,  who,  on  their  landing,  caused  them 
to  be  immediately  arrested,  and  banished  them  all 
from  the  country,  under  pain  of  death  if  they  returned 
to  it ! " 

The  greatest  sympathy  was  felt  for  Montigny  in  the 
Netherlands,  where  the  nobles  were  filled  with  indigna- 
tion at  the  unworthy  treatment  their  envoy  had  received 
from  Philip.  His  stepmother,  the  dowager-countess  of 
Hoorne,  was  as  untiring  in  her  efforts  for  him  as  she 
had  been  for  his  unfortunate  brother.  These  were 
warmly  seconded  by  his  wife,  a  daughter  of  the  prince 
of  Epinoy,  to  whom  Montigny  had  been  married  but 
a  short  time  before  his  mission  to  Spain.  This  lady 
wrote  a  letter  in  the  most  humble  tone  of  supplication 
to  Philip.  She  touched  on  the  blight  brought  on  her 
domestic  happiness,  spoke  with  a  strong  conviction  of 
the  innocence  of  Montigny,  and  with  tears  and  lamenta- 
tions implored  the  king,  by  the  consideration  of  his 
past  services,  by  the  passion  of  the  blessed  Saviour,  to 
show  mercy  to  her  husband."" 

Several  months  elapsed,  after  the  execution  of  the 
Counts  Egmont  and  Hoorne,  before  the  duke  com- 
menced proceedings  against  Montigny;  and  it  was  not 
till  February,  1569,  that  the  licentiate  Salazar,  one  of 
the  royal  council,  was  sent  to  Segovia  in  order  to 

»9  Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  60. 

-o  "  Et  consommee  en  larmes  et  pletirs  afin  que,  en  consideration 
des  services  passes  de  sondit  mari,  de  son  jeune  age  a  elle,  qui  n'a 
dt6  en  la  compagnie  de  son  mari  qu'environ  quatre  mois,  et  de  la 
passion  de  Jesus-Christ,  S.  M.  veuille  lui  pardonner  les  fautes  qu'il 
pourrait  avoir  commises."  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii. 
p.  94. 

Philip.— Vol  II.— n  25 


290 


SECRET  EXECUTION  OF  MONTIGNY. 


interrogate  the  prisoner.  The  charges  were  of  the 
same  nature  with  those  brought  against  Egmont  and 
Hoorne.  Montigny  at  first,  like  them,  refused  to  make 
any  reply, — standing  on  his  rights  as  a  member  of  the 
Golden  Fleece.  He  was,  however,  after  a  formal  pro- 
test, prevailed  on  to  waive  this  privilege.  The  exami- 
nation continued  several  days.  The  various  documents 
connected  with  it  are  still  preserved  in  the  Archives  of 
Simancas.  M.  Gachard  has  given  no  abstract  of  their 
contents.  But  that  sagacious  inquirer,  after  a  careful 
perusal  of  the  papers,  pronounces  Montigny' s  answers 
to  be  "a  victorious  refutation  of  the  charges  of  the 
attorney-general. ' ' " 

It  was  not  a  refutation  that  Philip  or  his  viceroy 
wanted.  Montigny  was  instantly  required  to  appoint 
some  one  to  act  as  counsel  in  his  behalf.  But  no  one 
was  willing  to  undertake  the  business,  till  a  person  of 
little  note  at  length  consented,  or  was  rather  compelled 
to  undertake  it  by  the  menaces  of  Alva."^  Any  man 
might  well  have  felt  a  disinclination  for  an  office  which 
must  expose  him  to  the  ill  will  of  the  government,  with 
little  chance  of  benefit  to  his  client. 

Even  after  this,  Montigny  was  allowed  to  languish 
another  year  in  prison  before  sentence  was  passed  on 
him  by  his  judges.  The  proceedings  of  the  Council 
of  Blood  on  this  occasion  were  marked  by  a  more 
flagitious  contempt  of  justice,  if  possible,  than  its  pro- 
ceedings usually  were.  The  duke,  in  a  letter  of  the 
eighteenth  of  March,  1570,  informed  the  king  of  the 
particulars  of  the  trial.     He  had  submitted  the  case, 

"  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii.  p.  123,  note. 
»  Ibid.,  p.  90. 


HIS  PROCESS. 


291 


not  to  the  whole  court,  but  to  a  certain  number  of  tlie 
councillors,  selected  by  him  for  the  purpose.'^  He  does 
not  tell  on  what  principle  the  selection  was  made, 
Philip  could  readily  divine  it.  In  the  judgment  of  the 
majority,  Montigny  was  found  guilty  of  high  treason. 
The  duke  accordingly  passed  sentence  of  death  on 
him.  The  sentence  was  dated  March  4th,  1570.  It 
was  precisely  of  the  same  import  with  the  sentences  of 
Egmont  and  Hoorne.  It  commanded  that  Montigny 
be  taken  from  prison  and  publicly  beheaded  with  a 
sword.  His  head  was  to  be  stuck  on  a  pole,  there  to 
remain  during  the  pleasure  of  his  majesty.  His  goods 
and  estates  were  to  be  confiscated  to  the  crown.-'* 

The  sentence  was  not  communicated  even  to  the 
Council  of  Blood.  The  only  persons  aware  of  its 
existence  were  the  duke's  secretary  and  his  two  trusty 
councillors,  Vargas  and  Del  Rio.  Alva  had  kept  it 
thus  secret  until  he  should  learn  the  will  of  his  master,  ^s 
At  the  same  time  he  intimated  to  Philip  that  he  might 
think  it  better  to  have  the  execution  take  place  in 
Castile,  as  under  existing  circumstances  more  eligible 
than  the  Netherlands. 

Philip  was  in  Andalusia,  making  a  tour  in  the  southern 
provinces,  when  the  despatches  of  his  viceroy  reached 
him.  He  was  not  altogether  pleased  with  their  tenor. 
Not  that  he  had  any  misgivings  in  regard  to  the  sen- 
tence ;    for  he  was  entirely  satisfied,  as  he  wrote  to 

23  "  Visto  el  proceso  por  algunos  del  Consejo  de  S.  M.  destos  sus 
Estados  por  mi  nombrados  para  el  dicho  efecto."  Documentos  ino- 
ditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  535. 

=4  The  sentence  may  be  found,  Ibid.,  pp.  535-537. 

=s  "  Porque  no  viniese  d  noticia  de  ninguno  de  los  otros  hasta  saber 
la  voluntad  de  V.  M."     Ibid.,  p.  533. 


292 


SECRET  EXECUTION  OF  MONTIGNY. 


Alva,  of  Montigny's  guilt. "^  But  he  did  not  approve 
of  a  public  execution.  Enough  blood,  it  might  be 
thought  in  the  Netherlands,  had  been  already  spilt ; 
and  men  there  might  complain  that,  shut  up  in  a 
foreign  prison  during  his  trial,  Montigny  had  not  met 
with  justice. "^  There  were  certainly  some  grounds  for 
such  a  complaint. 

Philip  resolved  to  defer  taking  any  decisive  step  in 
the  matter  till  his  return  to  the  north.  Meanwhile,  he 
commended  Alva's  discretion  in  keeping  the  sentence 
secret,  and  charged  him  on  no  account  to  divulge  it, 
even  to  members  of  the  council. 

Some  months  elapsed  after  the  king's  return  to 
Madrid  before  he  came  to  a  decision, — exhibiting  the 
procrastination  so  conspicuous  a  trait  in  him,  even 
among  a  people  with  whom  procrastination  was  no 
miracle.  It  may  have  been  that  he  was  too  much 
occupied  with  an  interesting  affair  which  pressed  on 
him  at  that  moment.  About  two  years  before,  Philip 
had  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  his  young  and  beautiful 
queen,  Isabella  of  the  Peace.  Her  place  was  now  to 
be  supplied  by  a  German  princess,  Anne  of  Austria^ 
his  fourth  wife,  still  younger  than  the  one  he  had  lost. 
She  was  already  on  her  way  to  Castile ;  and  the  king 
may  have  been  too  much  engrossed  by  his  preparations 
for  the  nuptial  festivities  to  have  much  thought  to 
bestow  on  the  concerns  of  his  wretched  prisoner. 

=*  "  Asi  que  constando  tan  claro  de  sus  culpas  y  delictos,  en  cuanto 
al  hecho  de  la  justicia  no  habia  que  parar  mas  de  mandarla  ejecutar." 
Docuinentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  539. 

*7  "  Por  estar  acd  el  delincuento  que  dijcran  que  se  habia  hecho  en- 
tre  compadics,  y  como  opreso,  sin  se  poder  defender  juridicamente." 
Ibid.,  p.  561. 


HIS  PROCESS. 


293 


The  problem  to  be  solved  was  how  to  carry  the  sen- 
tence into  effect  and  yet  leave  the  impression  on  the 
public  that  Montigny  had  died  a  natural  death'.  Most 
of  the  few  ministers  whom  the  king  took  into  his  confi- 
dence on  the  occasion  were  of  opinion  that  it  would 
be  best  to  bring  the  prisoner's  death  about  by  means 
of  a  slow  poison  administered  in  his  drink  or  some 
article  of  his  daily  food.  This  would  give  him  time, 
moreover,  to  provide  for  the  concerns  of  his  soul.''^ 
But  Philip  objected  to  this,  as  not  fulfilling  what  he 
was  pleased  to  call  the  ends  of  justice.  ='  He  at  last 
decided  on  the  garrote, — the  form  of  execution  used 
for  the  meaner  sort  of  criminals  in  Spain,  but  which, 
producing  death  by  suffocation,  would  be  less  likely  to 
leave  its  traces  on  the  body.^ 

To  accomplish  this,  it  would  be  necessary  to  remove 
Montigny  from  the  town  of  Segovia,  the  gay  residence 
of  the  court,  and  soon  to  be  the  scene  of  the  wedding- 
ceremonies,  to  some  more  remote  and  less  frequented 
spot.     Simancas  was  accordingly  selected,  whose  stern, 

28  "  Parescia  d  los  mas  que  era  bien  darle  un  bocado  6  echar  algim 
genero  de  veneno  en  la  comida  6  bebida  con  que  se  fuese  muriendo 
poco  a  poco,  y  pudiese  componer  las  cosas  de  su  dnima  como  en- 
fermo."     Documentos  indditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  561. 

^  "  Mas  d  S.  M.  parescio  que  desta  manera  no  se  cumplia  con  la 
justicia."  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. — These  particulars  are  gathered  from  a 
full  report  of  the  proceedings,  sent,  by  Philip's  orders,  to  the  duke  of 
Alva,  November  2d,  1570. 

3="  The  garrote  is  still  used  in  capital  punishments  in  Spain.  It  may 
be  well  to  mention,  for  the  information  of  some  of  my  readers,  that 
it  is  performed  by  drawing  a  rope  tight  round  the  neck  of  the  criminal, 
so  as  to  produce  suffocation.  This  is  done  by  turning  a  stick  to  which 
the  rope  is  attached  behind  his  head.  Instead  of  this  apparatus,  an 
iron  collar  is  more  frequently  employed  in  modern  executions. 
25 


294       SECRET  EXECUTION  OF  MONTIGNY. 

secluded  fortress  seemed  to  be  a  fitting  place  for  the 
perpetration  of  such  a  deed.  The  fortress  was  of  great 
strength,  and  was  encompassed  by  massive  walls,  and 
a  wide  moat,  across  which  two  bridges  gave  access  to 
the  interior.  It  was  anciently  used  as  a  prison  for 
state  criminals.  Cardinal  Ximenes  first  conceived  the 
idea  of  turning  it  to  the  nobler  purpose  of  preserving 
the  public  archives. 3'  Charles  the  Fifth  carried  this 
enlightened  project  into  execution ;  but  it  was  not  fully 
consummated  till  the  time  of  Philip,  who  prescribed 
the  regulations,  and  made  all  the  necessary  arrange- 
ments for  placing  the  institution  on  a  permanent  basis, 
— thus  securing  to  future  historians  the  best  means  for 
guiding  their  steps  through  the  dark  and  tortuous  pas- 
sages of  his  reign.  But  even  after  this  change  in  its 
destination  the  fortress  of  Simancas  continued  to  be 
used  occasionally  as  a  place  of  confinement  for  pris- 
oners of  state.  The  famous  bishop  of  Zamora,  who 
took  so  active  a  part  in  the  war  of  the  co7mmidades, 
was  there  strangled  by  command  of  Charles  the  Fifth. 
The  quarter  of  the  building  in  which  he  suffered  is 
still  known  by  the  name  of  "el  cuho  del  obispo,^' — 
"The  Bishop's  Tower. "^^ 

3»  This  is  established  by  a  letter  of  the  cardinal  himself,  in  which 
he  requests  the  king  to  command  all  officials  to  deliver  into  his  hands 
their  registers,  instruments,  and  public  documents  of  every  descrip- 
tion,— to  be  placed  in  these  archives,  that  they  may  hereafter  be  pre- 
served from  injury.  His  biographer  adds  that  few  of  these  documents 
— such  only  as  could  be  gleaned  by  the  cardinal's  industry — reach  as 
far  back  as  the  reign  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  Quintinilla,  Vida 
de  Ximenes,  p.  264. 

3*  M.  Gachard,  who  gives  us  some  interesting  particulars  of  the 
ancient  fortress  of  Simancas,  informs  us  that  this  tower  was  the  scene 
of  some  of  his  own  labors  there.     It  was  an  interesting  circumstance, 


REMOVAL    TO  SIMANCAS. 


295 


To  this  strong  place  Montigny  was  removed  from 
Segovia,  on  the  nineteenth  of  August,  1570,  under  a 
numerous  guard  of  alguazils  and  arquebusiers.  For 
greater  security  he  was  put  in  irons,  a  superfluous  piece 
of  cruelty,  from  which  Philip,  in  a  letter  to  Alva, 
thought  it  necessary  to  vindicate  himself,  as  having 
been  done  without  his  orders. ^^  w^  might  well  im- 
agine that  the  last  ray  of  hope  must  have  faded  away 
in  Montigny's  bosom  as  he  entered  the  gloomy  portals 
of  his  new  abode.  Yet  hope,  as  we  are  assured,  did 
not  altogether  desert  him.  He  had  learned  that  Anne 
of  Austria  had  expressed  much  sympathy  for  his  suf- 
ferings. It  was  but  natural  that  the  daughter  of  the 
Emperor  Maximilian  should  take  an  interest  in  the 
persecuted  people  of  the  Netherlands.  It  was  even 
said  that  she  promised  the  wife  and  stepmother  of 
Montigny  to  make  his  liberation  the  first  boon  she 
would  ask  of  her  husband  on  coming  to  Castile.^  And 
Montigny  cherished  the  fond  hope  that  the  influence 
of  the  young  bride  would  turn  the  king  from  his  pur- 
pose, and  that  her  coming  to  Castile  would  be  the 
signal  for  his  liberation.  That  Anne  should  have 
yielded  to  such  an  illusion  is  not  so  strange,  for  she 
had  never  seen  Philip ;  but  that  Montigny  should  have 
been  beguiled  by  it  is  more  difficult  to  understand. 

In  his  new  quarters  he  was  treated  with  a  show  of 
respect,  if  not  indulgence.    He  was  even  allowed  some 

that  he  was  thus  exploring  the  records  of  Montigny's  sufferings  in  the 
very  spot  which  witnessed  them. 

33  "  Asi  lo  cumplio  poniendole  grillos  para  mayor  seguridad,  aun- 
que  esto  fue  sin  orden,  porque  ni  esto  era  menester  ni  quisiera  S.  M. 
que  se  hubiera  hecho."     Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  561. 

34  Meteren,  Hist,  des  Pays-Bas,  fol.  60. 


296       SECRET  EXECUTION  OF  MONTIGNY. 

privileges.  Tliough  the  guards  were  doubled  over  him, 
he  was  permitted  to  have  his  own  servants,  and,  when 
it  suited  him,  to  take  the  fresh  air  and  sunshine  in  the 
corridor. 

Early  in  October  the  young  Austrian  princess  landed 
on  the  northern  shores  of  the  kingdom,  at  Santander. 
The  tidings  of  this  may  have  induced  the  king  to 
quicken  his  movements  in  regard  to  his  prisoner, 
willing  perhaps  to  relieve  himself  of  all  chance  of 
importunity  from  his  bride,  as  well  as  from  the  awk- 
wardness of  refusing  the  first  favor  she  should  request. 
As  a  preliminary  step,  it  would  be  necessary  to  abridge 
the  liberty  which  Montigny  at  present  enjoyed,  to  con- 
fine him  to  his  apartment,  and,  cutting  off  his  commu- 
nications even  with  those  in  the  castle,  to  spread  the 
rumor  of  his  illness,  which  should  prepare  the  minds 
of  the  public  for  a  fatal  issue. 

To  furnish  an  apology  for  his  close  confinement,  a 
story  was  got  up  of  an  attempt  to  escape,  similar  to 
what  had  actually  occurred  at  Segovia.  Peralta,  alcayde 
of  the  fortress,  a  trustworthy  vassal,  to  whom  was  com- 
mitted the  direction  of  the  affair,  addressed  a  letter  to 
the  king,  enclosing  a  note  in  Latin,  which  he  pretended 
had  been  found  under  Montigny' s  window,  containing 
sundry  directions  for  his  flight.  The  fact  of  such  a 
design,  the  writer  said,  was  corroborated  by  the  appear- 
ance of  certain  persons  in  the  disguise  of  friars  about 
the  castle.  The  governor,  in  consequence,  had  been 
obliged  to  remove  his  prisoner  to  other  quarters,  of 
greater  security.  He  was  accordingly  lodged  in  the 
Bishop's  Tower, — ominous  quarters ! — where  he  was  no 
longer  allowed  the  attendance  of  his  own  domestics, 


CLOSER  CONFINEMENT. 


297 


but  placed  in  strict  confinement.  Montigny  had  taken 
this  proceeding  so  ill,  and  with  such  vehement  com- 
plaints of  its  injustice,  .that  it  had  brought  on  a  fever, 
under  which  he  was  now  laboring.  Peralta  concluded 
by  expressing  his  regret  at  being  forced  by  Montigny's 
conduct  into  a  course  so  painful  to  himself,  as  he  would 
gladly  have  allowed  him  all  the  indulgence  compatible 
with  his  own  honor. ^s  This  letter,  which  had  all  been 
concocted  in  the  cabinet  at  Madrid,  Avas  shown  openly 
at  court.  It  gained  easier  credit  from  the  fact  of  Mon- 
tigny's former  attempt  to  escape;  and  the  rumor  went 
abroad  that  he  was  now  lying  dangerously  ill. 

Early  in  October,  the  licentiate  Alonzo  de  Arellano 
had  been  summoned  from  Seville  and  installed  in  the 
office  of  alcalde  of  the  chancery  of  Valladolid,  distant 
only  two  leagues  from  Simancas.  Arellano  was  a  person 
in  whose  discretion  and  devotion  to  himself  Philip 
knew  he  could  confide ;  and  to  him  he  now  intrusted 
the  execution  of  Montigny.  Directions  for  the  course 
he  was  to  take,  as  well  as  the  precautions  he  was  to  use 
to  prevent  suspicion,  were  set  down  in  the  royal  instruc- 
tions with  great  minuteness.  They  must  be  allowed  to 
form  a  remarkable  document,  such  as  has  rarely  pro- 
ceeded from  a  royal  pen.  The  alcalde  was  to  pass  to 
Simancas,  and  take  with  him  a  notary,  an  executioner, 
and  a  priest.  The  last  should  be  a  man  of  undoubted 
piety  and  learning,  capable  of  dispelling  any  doubts  or 
errors  that  might  unhappily  have  arisen  in  Montigny's 
mind  in  respect  to  the  faith.     Such  a  man  appeared 

35  This  lying  letter,  dated  at  Simancas,  October  loth,  with  the  scrap 
of  mongrel  Latin  which  it  enclosed,  may  be  found  in  the  Documentos 
ineditos,  torn.  iv.  pp.  550-552. 

N* 


29S        SECRET  EXECUTION  OF  MONTIGNY. 

to  be  Fray  Hernando  del  Castillo,  of  the  order  of  St. 
Dominic,  in  Valladolid ;  and  no  better  person  could 
have  been  chosen,  nor  one  more  open  to  those  feelings 
of  humanity  which  are  not  always  found  under  the  robe 
of  the  friar.  3^ 

Attended  by  these  three  persons,  the  alcalde  left 
Valladolid  soon  after  nightfall  on  the  evening  of  the 
fourteenth  of  October.  Peralta  had  been  advised  of 
his  coming;  and  the  little  company  were  admitted  into 
the  castle  so  cautiously  as  to  attract  no  observation. 
The  governor  and  the  judge  at  once  proceeded  to 
Montigny's  apartment,  where  they  found  the  unhappy 
man  lying  on  his  pallet,  ill  not  so  much  of  the  fever 
that  was  talked  of,  as  of  that  sickness  of  the  heart 
which  springs  from  hope  deferred.  When  informed 
of  his  sentence  by  Arellano,  in  words  as  kind  as  so 
cruel  a  communication  would  permit,  he  was  wholly 
overcome  by  it,  and  for  some  time  continued  in  a  state 
of  pitiable  agitation.  Yet  one  might  have  thought  that 
the  warnings  he  had  already  received  were  such  as 
might  have  prejDared  his  mind  in  some  degree  for  the 
blow.  For  he  seems  to  have  been  in  the  condition  of 
the  tenant  of  one  of  those  inquisitorial  cells  in  Venice, 
the  walls  of  which,  we  are  told,  were  so  constructed  as 
to  approach  each  other  gradually  every  day,  until  the 
wretched  inmate  was  crushed  between  them.  After 
Montigny  had  sufficiently  recovered  from  his  agitation 
to  give  heed  to  it,  the  sentence  was  read  to  him  by  the 
notary.  He  was  still  to  be  allowed  a  day  before  the 
execution,  in  order  to  gain  time,  as  Philip  had  said,  to 

36  Tlie  instructions  delivered  to  the  licentiate  Don  Alonzo  de  Arellano 
arc  given  in  full,  Docunientos  indditos,  torn.  iv.  pp.  542-549. 


HIS  SENTENCE  ANNOUNCED    TO  II I M. 


299 


settle  his  affairs  with  Heaven,  And  although,  as  the 
alcalde  added-,  the  sentence  passed  on  him  was  held  by 
the  king  as  a  just  sentence,  yet,  in  consideration  of  his 
quality,  his  majesty,  purely  out  of  his  benignity  and 
clemency,  was  willing  so  far  to  mitigate  it,  in  regard  to 
the  form,  as  to  allow  him  to  be  executed,  not  in  public, 
but  in  secret,  thus  saving  his  honor,  and  suggesting  the 
idea  of  his  having  come  to  his  end  by  a  natural  death. ^^ 
For  this  act  of  grace  Montigny  seems  to  have  been 
duly  grateful.  How  true  were  the  motives  assigned 
for  it,  the  reader  can  determine. 

Having  thus  discharged  their  painful  office,  Arellano 
and  the  governor  withdrew,  and,  summoning  the  friar, 
left  the  prisoner  to  the  spiritual  consolations  he  so  much 
needed.  What  followed,  we  have  from  Castillo  him- 
self. As  Montigny's  agitation  subsided,  he  listened 
patiently  to  the  exhortations  of  the  good  father ;  and 
when  at  length  restored  to  something  like  his  natural 
composure,  he  joined  with  him  earnestly  in  prayer. 
He  then  confessed  and  received  the  sacrament,  seem- 
ing desirous  of  employing  the  brief  space  that  yet 
remained  to  him  in  preparation  for  the  solemn  change. 
At  intervals,  when  not  actually  occupied  with  his  de- 
votions, he  read  the  compositions  of  Father  Luis  de 
Granada,  whose  spiritualized  conceptions  had  often 
solaced  the  hours  of  his  captivity. 

Montigny  was  greatly  disturbed  by  the  rumor  of  his 

37  "  Aunque  S.  M.  tenia  por  cierto  que  era  muy  juridica,  habida 
consideracion  i.  la  calidad  de  su  persona  y  usando  con  el  de  su  Real 
clemencia  y  benignidad  hat)ia  tenido  por  bien  de  moderarla  en  cuanto 
d  la  forma  mandando  que  no  se  ejecutase  en  publico,  sino  alii  en 
secreto  por  su  honor,  y  que  se  daria  a  entender  haber  muerto  de 
aquella  enfermedad."     Documentos  in^ditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  563. 


300       SECRET  EXECUTION  OF  MONTIGNY. 

having  been  shaken  in  his  religious  principles  and 
having  embraced  the  errors  of  the  Reformers.  To 
correct  this  impression,  he  briefly  drew  up,  with  his 
own  hand,  a  confession  of  faith,  in  which  he  avows  as 
implicit  a  belief  in  all  the  articles  sanctioned  by  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  its  head,  the  Vicar  of 
Christ,  as  Pius  the  Fifth  himself  could  have  desired. '^ 
Having  thus  relieved  his  mind,  Montigny  turned  to 
some  temporal  affairs  which  he  was  desirous  to  settle. 
They  did  not  occupy  much  time.  For,  as  Philip  had 
truly  remarked,  there  was  no  occasion  for  him  to  make 
a  will,  since  he  had  nothing  to  bequeath,  —  all  his 
property  having  been  confiscated  to  the  crown. ^^  If, 
however,  any  debt  pressed  heavily  on  his  conscience, 
he  was  to  be  allowed  to  indicate  it,  as  well  as  any 
provision  which  he  particularly  desired  to  make  for  a 
special  purpose.  This  was  on  the  condition,  however, 
that  he  should  allude  to  himself  as  about  to  die  a 
natural  death.'"' 

Montigny  profited  by  this  to  express  the  wish  that 
masses,  to  the  number  of  seven  hundred,  might  be  said 
for  his  soul,  that  sunxiry  sums  might  be  appropriated  to 
private  uses,  and  that  some  gratuities  might  be  given  to 

38  The  confession  of  faith  may  be  found  in  the  Documentos  ineditos, 
torn.  iv.  p.  553. 

39  "  Si  el  dicho  Flores  de  Memoranci  quisiese  ordenar  testamento 
no  habrd  para  que  darse  d  esto  lugar,  pues  siendo  confiscados  todos 
sus  bienes  y  por  tales  crimines,  ni  puede  testar  ni  tiene  de  qu6."  Ibid., 
p.  548. 

40  "  Empero  si  todavfa  quisicre  hacer  alguna  memoria  de  deudas 
6  descargos  se  le  podrd  permitir  como  en  esto  no  se  haga  mencion 
alguna  de  la  justicia  y  ejccucion  que  se  liace,  sino  que  sea  hecho  como 
memorial  de  honibre  cnfermo  y  que  se  tcmia  morir."  Ibid.,  ubi 
supra. 


HIS  LAST  MOMENTS.  301 

certain  of  his  faithful  followers.  It  may  interest  the 
reader  to  know  that  the  masses  were  punctually  per- 
formed. In  regard  to  the  pious  legacies,  the  king 
wrote  to  Alva,  he  must  first  see  if  Montigny's  estate 
would  justify  the  appropriation;  as  for  the  gratuities 
to  servants,  they  were  wholly  out  of  the  question.'*' 

One  token  of  remembrance,  which  he  placed  in  the 
hands  of  Castillo,  doubtless  reached  its  destination. 
This  was  a  gold  chain  of  delicate  workmanship,  with 
a  seal  or  signet  ring  attached  to  it,  bearing  his  arms. 
This  little  token  he  requested  might  be  given  to  his 
wife.  It  had  been  his  constant  companion  ever  since 
they  were  married ;  and  he  wished  her  to  wear  it  in 
memory  of  him,  —  expressing  at  the  same  time  his 
regret  that  a  longer  life  had  not  been  granted  him,  to 
serve  and  honor  her.  As  a  dying  injunction,  he  be- 
sought her  not  to  be  entangled  by  the  new  doctrines 
or  to  swerve  from  the  faith  of  her  ancestors.  If  ever 
Montigny  had  a  leaning  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
Reformation,  it  could  hardly  have  deepened  into 
conviction ;  for  early  habit  and  education  reasserted 
their  power  so  entirely  at  this  solemn  moment  that 
the  Dominican  by  his  side  declared  that  he  gave  evi- 
dence of  being  as  good  and  Catholic  a  Christian  as  he 
could  wish  to  be  himself.''^  The  few  hours  in  which 
Montigny  had  thus  tasted  of  the  bitterness  of  death 
seemed  to  have  done  more  to  wean  him  from  the  vani- 

4'  "Quant  aux  merc^des  qu'il  a  accordees,  il  n'y  a  pas  lieu  d'y 
donner  suite."     Correspondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii.  p.  169. 

*»  "  En  lo  uno  y  en  lo  otro  tuvo  las  demostraciones  de  catolico  y 
buen  cristiano  que  yo  deseo  para  mi."     See  the  letter  of  Fray  Her- 
nando del  Castillo,  Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  pp.  5S4-559. 
Philip.— Vol.  IT.  26 


302 


SECRET  EXECUTION  OF  MONTIGNY. 


ties  of  life  than  the  whole  years  of  dreary  imprisonment 
he  had  passed  within  the  walls  of  Segovia  and  Simancas. 
Yet  we  shall  hardly  credit  the  friar's  assertion  that  he 
carried  his  resignation  so  far  that,  though  insisting  on 
his  own  innocence,  he  admitted  the  sentence  of  his 
judges  to  be  just !  "^ 

At  about  two  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  sixteenth 
of  October,  when  the  interval  allowed  for  this  solemn 
preparation  had  expired,  Father  Castillo  waited  on  the 
governor  and  the  alcalde,  to  inform  them  that  the  hour 
had  come,  and  that  their  prisoner  was  ready  to  receive 
them.  They  went,  without  further  delay,  to  the  cham- 
ber of  death,  attended  by  the  notary  and  the  execu- 
tioner. Then,  in  their  presence,  while  the  notary  made 
a  record  of  the  proceedings,  the  grim  minister  of  the 
law  did  his  work  on  his  unresisting  victim.'^ 

No  sooner  was  the  breath  out  of  the  body  of  Mon- 
tigny  than  the  alcalde,  the  priest,  and  their  two 
companions  were  on  their  way  back  to  Valladolid, 
reaching  it  before  dawn,  so  as  to  escape  the  notice  of 
the  inhabitants.  All  were  solemnly  bound  to  secrecy 
in  regard  to  the  dark  act  in  which  they  had  been 
engaged.  The  notary  and  the  hangman  were  still 
further  secured  by  the  menace  of  death  in,  case  they 

43  "  Fuele  creciendo  por  horas  el  desengaiio  de  la  vida,  la  paciencia, 
el  sufrimiento,  y  la  conformidad  con  la  voluntad  de  Dios  y  de  su  Rey, 
cuya  scntencia  siempre  alabo  por  justa,  mas  siempre  protestando  de 
su  inocencia."     Documentos  ineditos,  tom.  iv.  pp.  554-559. 

44  "  Y  acabada  su  pMtica  y  de  encomendarse  d  Dios  todo  el  tiempo 
que  quiso,  el  verdugo  hizo  su  oficio  dandole  garrote."  See  the 
account  of  Montigny's  death  despatched  to  the  duke  of  Alva.  It 
was  written  in  cipher,  and  dated  November  2d,  1570.  Ibid.,  p.  560, 
et  seq. 


HIS  LAST  MOMENTS. 


303 


betrayed  any  knowledge  of  the  matter  ;  and  they  knew 
full  well  that  Philip  was  not  a  man  to  shrink  from  the 
execution  of  his  menaces. ''^ 

The  corpse  was  arrayed  in  a  Franciscan  habit,  which, 
coming  up  to  the  throat,  left  the  face  only  exposed  to 
observation.  It  was  thus  seen  by  Montigny's  servants, 
who  recognized  the  features  of  their  master,  hardly 
more  distorted  than  sometimes  happens  from  disease, 
when  the  agonies  of  death  have  left  their  traces.  The 
story  went  abroad  that  their  lord  had  died  of  the  fever 
with  which  he  had  been  so  violently  attacked. 

The  funeral  obsequies  were  performed,  according  to 
the  royal  orders,  with  all  due  solemnity.  The  vicar 
and  beneficiaries  of  the  church  of  St.  Saviour  officiated 
on  the  occasion.  The  servants  of  the  deceased  were 
clad  in  mourning, — a  token  of  respect  recommended  by 
Philip,  who  remarked,  the  servants  were  so  few  that 
mourning  might  as  well  be  given  to  them ;  '■^  and  he 
was  willing  to  take  charge  of  this  and  the  other  ex- 
penses of  the  funeral,  provided  Montigny  had  not  left 
money  sufficient  for  the  purpose.  The  place  selected 
for  his  burial  was  a  vault  under  one  of  the  chapels  of 
the  building ;  and  a  decent  monument  indicated  the 
spot  where  reposed  the  ashes  of  the  last  of  the  envoys 
who  came  from  Flanders  on  the  ill-starred  mission  to 
Madrid.''^ 


45  "  Ponierdo  pena  de  muerte  d  los  dichos  escribano  y  verdugo  si 
lo  descubriesen."     Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  564. 

4^  "  Y  no  serd  inconveniente  que  se  de  Into  d  sus  criados  pues  son 
pocos."  La  orden  que  ha  de  tener  el  Licenciado  D.  Aloj\zo  de 
Arellano,  Ibid.,  p.  542,  et  seq. 

47  Ibid.,  p.  549.     CoiTespondance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii.  p.  159. 


304 


SECRET  EXECUTION  OF  MONTIGNY. 


Such  is  a  true  account  of  this  tragical  affair,  as 
derived  from  the  king's  own  letters  and  those  of  his 
agents.  Far  different  was  the  story  put  in  circulation 
at  the  time.  On  the  seventeenth  of  October,  the  day 
after  Montigny's  death,  despatches  were  received  at 
court  from  Peralta,  the  alcayde  of  the  fortress.  They 
stated  that,  after  writing  his  former  letter,  his  prisoner's 
fever  had  so  much  increased  that  he  had  called  in  the 
aid  of  a  physician ;  and,  as  the  symptoms  became  more 
alarming,  the  latter  had  entered  into  a  consultation  with 
the  medical  adviser  of  the  late  regent,  Joanna,  so  that 
nothing  that  human  skill  could  afford  should  be  wanting 
to  the  patient.  He  grew  rapidly  worse,  however,  and 
as,  happily.  Father  Hernando  del  Castillo,  of  Valla- 
dolid,  chanced  to  be  then  in  Simancas,  he  came  and 
administered  the  last  consolations  of  religion  to  the 
dying  man.  Having  done  all  that  a  good  Christian  at 
such  a  time  should  do,  Montigny  expired  early  on  the 
morning  of  the  sixteenth,  manifesting  at  the  last  so 
Catholic  a  spirit  that  good  hopes  might  be  entertained 
of  his  salvation.*^ 

This  hypocritical  epistle,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say, 
like  the  one  that  preceded  it,  had  been  manufactured  at 
Madrid.  Nor  was  it  altogether  devoid  of  truth.  The 
physician  of  the  place,  named  Viana,  had  been  called 
in  3  and  it  was  found  necessary  to  intrust  him  with  the 
secret.  Every  day  he  paid  his  visit  to  the  castle,  and 
every  day  returned  with  more  alarming  accounts  of  the 
condition  of  the  patient ;  and  thus  the  minds  of  the 
community  were  j)repared  for  the  fatal  termination  of 

48  Carta  de  D.  Eugcnio  cle  Peralta  d  S.  M.,  Simancas,  17  de  Octu- 
bre,  1570,  Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  559. 


HIS  LAST  MOMENTS. 


305 


his  disorder.  Not  that,  after  all,  this  was  unattended 
with  suspicions  of  foul  play  in  the  matter,  as  people 
reflected  how  opportune  was  the  occurrence  of  such  an 
event.  But  suspicions  were  not  proof.  The  secret  was 
too  well  guarded  for  any  one  to  penetrate  the  veil  of 
mystery ;  and  the  few  who  were  behind  that  veil  loved 
their  lives  too  well  to  raise  it. 

Despatches  written  in  cipher,  and  containing  a  full 
and  true  account  of  the  affair,  were  sent  to  the  duke 
of  Alva.  The  two  letters  of  Peralta,  which  indeed 
were  intended  for  the  meridian  of  Brussels  rather  than 
of  Madrid,  were  forwarded  with  them.  The  duke  was 
told  to  show  them  incidentally,  as  it  were,  without 
obtruding  them  on  any  one's  notice,"'  that  Montigny's 
friends  in  the  Netherlands  might  be  satisfied  of  their 
truth. 

In  his  own  private  communication  to  Alva,  Philip, 
in  mentioning  the  orthodox  spirit  manifested  by  his 
victim  in  his  last  moments,  shows  that  with  the  satis- 
faction which  he  usually  expressed  on  such  occasions 
was  mingled  some  degree  of  skepticism.  "If  his  inner 
man,"  he  writes  of  Montigny,  "was  penetrated  with 
as  Christian  a  spirit  as  he  exhibited  in  the  outer,  and 
as  the  friar  who  confessed  him  has  reported,  God,  we 
may  presume,  will  have  mercy  on  his  soul.  "5°  In  the 
original  draft  of  the  letter,  as  prepared  by  the  king's 

49  "  No  las  mostrando  de  proposito  sino  descuidadamente  dlas  per- 
sonas  que  paresciere,  para  que  por  ellas  se  divulgue  haber  fallescido 
de  su  muerte  natural."     Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  564. 

50  "  El  cual  si  en  lo  interior  acabo  tan  cristianamente  como  lo 
mostro  en  lo  exterior  y  lo  ha  referido  el  fraile  que  le  confeso,  es  de 
creer  que  se  habrd  apiadado  Dios  de  su  anima."  Carta  de  S.  M.  al 
Duque  de  Alba,  del  Escurial,  d  3  de  Noviembre,  1570,  Ibid.,  p.  565. 

26* 


3o6       SECRET  EXECUTION  OF  MONTIGNY. 

secretary,  it  is  further  addfed,  "Yet,  after  all,  who  cau 
tell  but  this  was  a  delusion  of  Satan,  who,  as  we  know, 
never  deserts  the  heretic  in  his  dying  hour?"  This 
sentence — as  appears  from  the  manuscript  still  preser\'ed 
in  Simancas — was  struck  out  by  Philip,  with  the  remark 
in  his  own  hand,  "Omit  this,  as  we  should  think  no 
evil  of  the  dead!"5i 

Notwithstanding  this  magnanimous  sentiment,  Philip 
lost  no  time  in  publishing  Montigny  to  the  world  as  a 
traitor,  and  demanding  the  confiscation  of  his  estates. 
The  Council  of  Blood  learned  a  good  lesson  from  the 
Holy  Inquisition,  which  took  care  that  even  Death 
should  not  defraud  it  of  its  victims.  Proceedings  were 
instituted  against  the  memory  of  Montigny,  as  had  be- 
fore been  done  against  the  memory  of  the  marquis  of 
Bergen. 5^  On  the  twenty-second  of  March,  1571,  the 
duke  of  Aiva  pronounced  sentence,  condemning  the 
memory  of  Florence  de  Montmorency,  lord  of  Mon- 
tigny, as  guilty  of  high  treason,  and  confiscating  his 
goods  and  estates  to  the  use  of  the  croAvn;  "it  having 
come  to  his  knowledge,"  the  instrument  went  on  to 
say,  "  that  the  said  Montigny  had  deceased  by  natural 
death  in  the  fortress  of  Simancas,  where  he  had  of  late 
been  held  a  prisoner  !"  ^3 

51  "  Esto  mismo  borrad  de  la  cifra,  que  de  los  muertos  no  hay  que 
hacer  sino  bucn  juicio."     Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  iv.  p.  525,  note. 

52  The  confiscated  estates  of  the  marquis  of  Bergen  were  restored 
by  Philip  to  that  nobleman's  heirs  in  1577.  See  Vandervynckt, 
Troubles  des  Pays-Bas,  torn.  ii.  p.  235. 

53  "  Attendu  que  est  venu  ^  sa  notice  que  ledict  de  Montigny  seroit 
alle  de  vie  h  trespas,  par  mort  naturclle,  en  la  forteresse  de  Sy- 
mancques,  ou  il  cstoit  dcrni^rement  detenu  prisonier."  Correspon- 
dance  de  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii.  p.  171. 


REFLECTIONS. 


307 


The  proceedings  of  the  Council  of  Blood  against 
Montigny  were  characterized,  as  I  have  already  said, 
by  greater  effrontery  and  a  more  flagrant  contempt  of 
the  common  forms  of  justice  than  were  usually  to  be 
met  with  even  in  that  tribunal.  A  bare  statement  of 
the  facts  is  sufficient.  The  party  accused  was  put  on 
his  trial — if  trial  it  can  be  'called — in  one  country, 
while  he  was  held  in  close  custody  in  another.  The 
court  before  which  he  was  tried — or  rather  the  jury,  for 
the  council  seems  to  have  exercised  more  of  the  powers 
of  a  jury  than  of  a  judge — was  on  this  occasion  a  packed 
body,  selected  to  suit  the  purposes  of  the  prosecution. 
Its  sentence,  instead  of  being  publicly  pronounced,  was 
confided  only  to  the  party  interested  to  obtain  it, — the 
king.  Even  the  sentence  itself  was  not  the  one  carried 
into  effect ;  but  another  was  substituted  in  its  place, 
and  a  public  execution  was  supplanted  by  a  midnight 
assassination.  It  would  be  an  abuse  of  language  to 
dignify  such  a  proceeding  with  the  title  of  a  judicial 
murder. 

Yet  Philip  showed  no  misgivings  as  to  his  own  course 
in  the  matter.  He  had  made  up  his  mind  as  to  the 
guilt  of  Montigny.  He  had  been  false  to  his  king  and 
false  to  his  religion, — offences  which  death  only  could 
expiate.  Still  we  find  Philip  resorting  to  a  secret  exe- 
cution, although  Alva,  as  we  have  seen,  had  supposed 
that  sentence  was  to  be  executed  on  Montigny  in  the 
same  open  manner  as  it  had  been  on  the  other  victims 
of  the  bloody  tribunal.  But  the  king  shrank  from  ex- 
posing a  deed  to  the  public  eye  which,  independently 
of  its  atrocity  in  other  respects,  involved  so  flagrant  a 
violation  of  good  faith  towards  the  party  who  had  come, 


3o8  NOTICE    OF  GACHARD. 

at  his  sovereign's  own  desire,  on  a  public  mission  to 
Madrid.  With  this  regard  for  the  opinions  of  his  own 
age,  it  may  seem  strange  that  Philip  should  not  have 
endeavored  to  efface  every  vestige  of  his  connection 
with  the  act,  by  destroying  the  records  which  estab- 
lished it.  On  the  contrary,  he  not  only  took  care  that 
such  records  should  be  made,  but  caused  them,  and  all 
other  evidence  of  the  affair,  to  be  permanently  pre- 
served in  the  national  archives.  There  they  lay  for 
the  inspection  of  posterity,  which  was  one  day  to  sit 
in  judgment  on  his  conduct. 


In  the  part  of  this  History  which  relates  to  the  Netherlands,  I  have 
been  greatly  indebted  to  two  eminent  scholars  of  that  country.  The 
first  of  these,  M.  Gachard,  who  has  the  care  of  the  royal  archives  of 
Belgium,  was  commissioned  by  his  government,  in  1844,  to  visit  the 
Peninsula  for  the  purpose  of  collecting  materials  for  the  illustration 
of  the  national  history.  The  most  important  theatre  of  his  labors 
was  Simancas,  which,  till  the  time  of  his  visit,  had  been  carefully 
closed  to  natives  as  well  as  foreigners.  M.  Gachard  profited  by  the 
more  liberal  arrangements  which,  under  certain  restrictions,  opened 
its  historical  treasures  to  the  student.  The  result  of  his  labors  he  is 
now  giving  to  the  world  by  the  publication  of  his  "  Correspondance 
de  Philippe  II.,"  of  which  two  volumes  have  already  been  printed. 
The  work  is  published  in  a  beautiful  form,  worthy  of  the  auspices 
under  which  it  has  appeared.  It  consists  chiefly  of  the  correspond- 
ence carried  on  by  the  Spanish  government  and  the  authorities  of  the 
Netherlands  in  the  reign  of  Philip  the  Second, — the  revolutionary 
age,  and  of  course  the  most  eventful  period  of  their  history.  The 
official  despatches,  written  in  French,  are,  it  is  true,  no  longer  to  be 
found  in  Simancas,  whence  they  were  removed  to  Brussels  on  the 
accession  of  Albert  and  Isabella  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  Low  Coun- 
tries. But  a  large  mass  of  correspondence  which  passed  between  the 
court  of  Castile  and  the  Netherlands  is  still  preserved  in  the  Spanish 
archives.     As  it  is,  for  the  most  part,  of  a  confidential  nature,  con- 


GACHARD  AND    GROEN. 


309 


taining  strictures  on  men  and  things  intended  only  for  the  eyes  of  the 
parties  to  it,  it  is  of  infinite  value  to  the  historian.  Not  only  has  it 
never  before  been  published,  but,  with  the  exception  of  a  portion 
which  passed  under  the  review  of  the  Italian  Strada,  it  has  never  been 
submitted  to  the  inspection  of  the  scholar.  With  the  aid  of  this  rich 
collection,  the  historian  is  enabled  to  enter  into  many  details,  hitherto 
unknown,  of  a  personal  nature,  relating  to  the  actors  in  the  great 
drama  of  the  revolution,  as  well  as  to  disclose  some  of  the  secret 
springs  of  their  policy. 

M.  Gachard  has  performed  his  editorial  duties  with  conscientious- 
ness and  ability.  In  a  subsequent  volume  he  proposes  to  give  the 
entire  text  of  the  more  important  letters ;  but  in  the  two  already  pub- 
lished he  has  confined  himself  to  an  analysis  of  their  contents,  more 
or  less  extended,  according  to  circumstances.  He  has  added  ex- 
planatory notes,  and  prefixed  to  the  whole  a  copious  dissertation, 
presenting  a  view  of  the  politics  of  the  Castilian  court,  and  of  the 
characters  of  the  king  and  the  great  officers  of  state.  As  the  writer's 
information  is  derived  from  sources  the  most  authentic  as  well  as  the 
least  accessible  to  scholars,  his  preliminary  essay  deserves  to  be  care- 
fully studied  by  the  historian  of  the  Netherlands. 

M.  Gachard  has  further  claims  to  the  gratitude  of  every  lover  of 
letters  by  various  contributions  in  other  forms  which  he  has  made  to 
the  illustration  of  the  national  history.  Among  these  his  "  Corre- 
spondance  de  Guillaume  le  Taciturne,"  of  which  three  volumes  in 
octavo  have  already  appeared,  has  been  freely  used  by  me.  It  con- 
sists of  a  collection  of  William's  correspondence,  industriously  gath- 
ered from  various  quarters.  The  letters  differ  from  one  another  as 
widely  in  value  as  might  naturally  be  expected  in  so  large  and  miscel- 
laneous a  collection. 

The  other  scholar  by  whose  editorial  labors  I  have  profited  in  this 
part  of  my  work  is  M.  Groen  van  Prinsterer.  His  voluminous  pub- 
lication, "Archives  de  la  Maison  d'Orange-Nassau,"  the  first  series 
of  which  embraces  the  times  of  William  the  Silent,  is  derived  from 
the  private  collection  of  the  king  of  Holland.  The  contents  are  vari- 
ous, bat  consist  chiefly  of  letters  from  persons  who  took  a  prominent 
part  in  the  conduct  of  affairs.  Their  correspondence  embraces  a  mis- 
cellaneous range  of  topics,  and  with  those  of  public  interest  combines 
others  strictly  personal  in  their  details,  thus  bringing  into  strong  relief 
the  characters  of  the  most  eminent  actors  on  the  great  political  theatre. 
A  living  interest  attaches  to  this  correspondence,  which  we  shall  look 


3IO 


GROEN  AND  REIFFENBERG. 


for  in  vain  in  the  colder  pages  of  the  historian.  History  gives  us  the 
acts,  but  letters  like  these,  in  which  the  actors  speak  for  themselves, 
give  us  the  thoughts,  of  the  individual. 

M.  Groen  has  done  his  part  of  the  work  well,  adhering  to  the  origi- 
nal text  with  scrupulous  fidelity,  and  presenting  us  the  letters  in  the 
various  languages  in  which  they  were  written.  The  interstices,  so  to 
speak,  between  the  different  parts  of  the  correspondence,  are  skilfully 
filled  up  by  the  editor,  so  as  to  connect  the  incongruous  materials 
into  a  well-compacted  fabric.  In  conducting  what,  as  far  as  he  is 
concerned,  may  be  termed  the  original  part  of  his  work,  the  editor 
has  shown  much  discretion,  gathering  information  from  collateral 
contemporary  sources;  and,  by  the  side-lights  he  has  thus  thrown 
over  the  path,  he  has  greatly  facilitated  the  progress  of  the  student 
and  enabled  him  to  take  a  survey  of  the  whole  historical  ground.  The 
editor  is  at  no  pains  to  conceal  his  own  opinions ;  and  we  have  no  dif- 
ficulty in  determining  the  religious  sect  to  which  he  belongs.  But  it 
is  not  the  less  true  that  he  is  ready  to  render  justice  to  the  opinions  of 
others,  and  that  he  is  entitled  to  the  praise  of  having  executed  his 
task  with  impartiality. 

One  may  notice  a  pecuHarity  in  the  criticisms  of  both  Groen  and 
Gachard,  the  more  remarkable  considering  the  nations  to  which  they 
belong ;  that  is,  the  solicitude  they  manifest  to  place  the  most  favora- 
ble construction  on  the  conduct  of  Philip,  and  to  vindicate  his  memory 
from  the  wholesale  charges  so  often  brought  against  him,  of  a  sys- 
tematic attempt  to  overturn  the  liberties  of  the  Netherlands.  The 
reader,  even  should  he  not  always  feel  the  cogency  of  their  arguments, 
will  not  refuse  his  admiration  to  the  candor  of  the  critics. 

There  is  a  third  publication,  recently  issued  from  the  press  in  Brus- 
sels, which  contains,  in  the  compass  of  a  single  volume,  materials  of 
much  importance  for  the  history  of  the  Netherlands.  This  is  the 
"  Correspondance  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche,"  by  the  late  Baron  Reif- 
fenberg.  It  is  a  part  of  the  French  correspondence  which,  as  I  have 
mentioned  above,  was  transferred,  in  the  latter  part  of  Philip  the 
Second's  reign,  from  Simancas  to  Brussels,  but  which,  instead  of  re- 
maining there,  was  removed,  after  the  country  had  passed  under  the 
Austrian  sceptre,  to  the  imperial  library  of  Vienna,  where  it  e.xisls,  in 
all  probability,  at  the  present  day.  Some  fragments  of  this  corre- 
spondence escaped  the  fate  which  attended  the  bulk  of  it ;  and  it  is 
gleanings  from  these  which  Reiffenberg  has  given  to  the  world. 

That  country  is  fortunate  which  can  command  the  services  of  such 


GROEN  AND  REIFFENBERG. 


3'i 


men  as  these  for  the  illustration  of  its  national  annals, — men  who  with 
singular  enthusiasm  for  their  task  combine  the  higher  qualifications 
of  scholarship,  and  a  talent  for  critical  analysis.  By  their  persevering 
labors  the  rich  ore  h;is  been  drawn  from  the  mines  where  it  had  lain 
in  darkness  for  ages.  It  now  waits  only  for  the  hand  of  the  artist  to 
convert  it  into  coin  and  give  it  a  popular  currency. 


BOOK   IV. 
CHAPTER    I. 

THE   OTTOMAN    EMPIRE. 

Condition  of  Turkey. — African  Corsairs. — Expedition  against  Tripoli. 
— War  on  the  Barbary  Coast. 

1559-1563- 

There  are  two  methods  of  writing  history, — one  by 
following  down  the  stream  of  time  and  exhibiting 
events  in  their  chronological  order,  the  other  by  dis- 
posing of  these  events  according  to  their  subjects. 
The  former  is  the  most  obvious ;  and  where  the  action 
is  simj^le  and  continuous,  as  in  biography,  for  the  most 
part,  or  in  the  narrative  of  some  grand  historical  event, 
which  concentrates  the  interest,  it  is  probably  the  best. 
But  when  the  story  is  more  complicated,  covering  a 
wide  field  and  embracing  great  variety  of  incident, 
the  chronological  system,  however  easy  for  the  writer, 
becomes  tedious  and  unprofitable  to  the  reader.  He 
is  hurried  along  from  one  scene  to  another  without 
fully  apprehending  any ;  and  as  the  thread  of  the  nar- 
rative is  perpetually  broken  by  sudden  transition,  he 
carries  off  only  such  scraps  in  his  memory  as  it  is 
hardly  possible  to  weave  into  a  connected  and  con- 


CONDITION  OF  TURKEY. 


Z^l 


sistent  whole.  Yet  this  method,  as  the  most  simple 
and  natural,  is  the  one  most  affected  by  the  early- 
writers, — by  the  old  Castilian  chroniclers  more  par- 
ticularly, who  form  the  principal  authorities  in  the 
present  work.  Their  wearisome  pages,  mindful  of  no 
order  but  that  of  time,  are  spread  over  as  miscellaneous 
a  range  of  incidents,  and  having  as  little  relation  to 
one  another,  as  the  columns  of  a  newspaper. 

To  avoid  this  inconvenience,  historians  of  a  later 
period  have  preferred  to  conduct  their  story  on  more 
philosophical  principles,  having  regard  rather  to  the 
nature  of  the  events  described  than  to  the  precise  time 
of  their  occurrence.  And  thus  the  reader,  possessed 
of  one  action,  its  causes  and-  its  consequences,  before 
passing  on  to  another,  is  enabled  to  treasure  up  in  his 
memory  distinct  impressions  of  the  whole. 

In  conformity  to  this  plan,  I  have  detained  the 
reader  in  the  Netherlands  until  he  had  seen  the  close 
of  Margaret's  administration,  and  the  policy  which 
marked  the  commencement  of  her  successor's.  During 
this  period,  Spain  was  at  peace  with  her  European 
neighbors,  most  of  whom  were  too  much  occupied 
with  their  domestic  dissensions  to  have  leisure  for 
foreign  war.  France,  in  particular,  was  convulsed  by 
religious  feuds,  in  which  Philip,  as  the  champion  of 
the  Faith,  took  not  only  the  deepest  interest,  but  an 
active  part.     To  this  I  shall  return  hereafter. 

But,  while  at  peace  with  her  Christian  brethren, 
Spain  was  engaged  in  perpetual  hostilities  with  the 
Moslems,  both  of  Africa  and  Asia.  The  relations  of 
Europe  with  the  East  were  altogether  different  in  the 
sixteenth  century  from  what  they  are  in  our  day.  The 
Philip. — Vol.  II. — o  27 


314 


THE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 


Turkish  power  lay  like  a  dark  cloud  on  the  Eastern 
horizon,  to  which  every  eye  was  turned  with  appre- 
hension ;  and  the  same  people  for  whose  protection 
European  nations  are  now  willing  to  make  common 
cause  were  viewed  by  them,  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
in  the  light  of  a  common  enemy. 

It  was  fortunate  for  Islamism  that,  as  the  standard 
of  the  Prophet  was  falling  from  the  feeble  grasp  of  the 
Arabs,  it  was  caught  up  by  a  nation  like  the  Turks, 
whose  fiery  zeal  urged  them  to  bear  it  still  onward  in 
the  march  of  victory.  The  Turks  were  to  the  Arabs 
what  the  Romans  were  to  the  Greeks.  Bold,  warlike, 
and  ambitious,  they  had  little  of  that  love  of  art 
which  had  been  the  dominant  passion  of  their  pre- 
decessors, and  still  less  of  that  refinement  which,  with 
the  Arabs,  had  degenerated  into  effeminacy  and  sloth. 
Their  form  of  government  was  admirably  suited  to 
their  character.  It  was  an  unmixed  despotism.  The 
sovereign,  if  not  precisely  invested  with  the  theocratic 
character  of  the  caliphs,  was  hedged  round  with  so 
much  sanctity  that  resistance  to  his  authority  was  an 
offence  against  religion  as  well  as  law.  He  was  placed 
at  an  immeasurable  distance  above  his  subjects.  No 
hereditary  aristocracy  was  allowed  to  soften  the  de- 
scent and  interpose  a  protecting  barrier  for  the  people. 
All  power  was  derived  from  the  sovereign,  and,  on  the 
death  of  its  proprietor,  returned  to  him.  In  the  eye 
of  the  sultan,  his  vassals  were  all  equal,  and  all  equally 
his  slaves. 

The  theory  of  an  absolute  government  would  seem 
to  imply  perfection  in  the  head  of  it.  But,  as  perfec- 
tion is  not  the  lot  of  humanity,  it  was  prudently  pro- 


CONDITION  OF  TURKEY. 


315 


vided  by  the  Turkish  constitution  that  the  suUan  should 
have  the  benefit  of  a  council  to  advise  him.  It  con- 
sisted of  three  or  four  great  officers,  appointed  by  him- 
self, with  the  grand  vizier  at  their  head.  This  func- 
tionary was  possessed  of  an  authority  far  exceeding 
that  of  the  prime  minister  of  any  European  prince. 
All  the  business  of  state  may  be  said  to  have  passed 
through  his  hands.  The  persons  chosen  for  this  high 
office  were  usually  men  of  capacity  and  experience ; 
and  in  a  weak  reign  they  served  by  their  large  au- 
thority to  screen  the  incapacity  of  the  sovereign  from 
the  eyes  of  his  subjects,  while  they  preserved  the  state 
from  detriment.  It  might  be  thought  that  powers  so 
vast  as  those  bestowed  on  the  vizier  might  have  ren- 
dered him  formidable,  if  not  dangerous,  to  his  master. 
But  his  master  was  placed  as  far  above  him  as  above 
the  meanest  of  his  subjects.  He  had  unlimited  power 
of  life  and  death ;  and  how  little  he  was  troubled  with 
scruples  'in  the  exercise  of  this  power  is  abundantly 
shown  in  history.  The  bow-string  was  too  often  the 
only  warrant  for  the  deposition  of  a  minister. 

But  the  most  remarkable  of  the  Turkish  institutions, 
the  one  which  may  be  said  to  have  formed  the  key- 
stone of  the  system,  was  that  relating  to  the  Christian 
population  of  the  empire.  Once  in  five  years  a  general 
conscription  was  made,  by  means  of  which  all  the 
children  of  Christian  parents  who  had  reached  the 
age  of  seven,  and  gave  promise  of  excellence  in  mind 
or  body,  were  taken  from  their  homes  and  brought  to 
the  capital.  They  were  then  removed  to  different 
quarters,  and  placed  in  seminaries  where  they  might 
receive  such  instruction  as  would  fit  them  for  the  duties 


31 6  THE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 

of  life.  Those  giving  greatest  promise  of  strength 
and  endurance  were  sent  to  places  prepared  for  them 
in  Asia  Minor.  Here  they  were  subjected  to  a  severe 
training,  to  abstinence,  to  privations  of  every  kind, 
and  to  the  strict  discipline  which  should  fit  them  for 
the  profession  of  a  soldier.  From  this  body  was 
formed  the  famous  corps  of  the  janizaries. 

Another  portion  were  placed  in  schools  in  the  capi- 
tal or  the  neighboring  cities,  where,  under  the  eye  of 
the  sultan,  as  it  were,  they  were  taught  various  manly 
accomplishments,  with  such  a  smattering  of  science  as 
Turkish,  or  rather  Arabian,  scholarship  could  supply. 
When  their  education  was  finished,  some  went  into  the 
sultan's  body-guard,  where  a  splendid  provision  was 
made  for  their  maintenance.  Others,  intended  for  civil 
life,  entered  on  a  career  which  might  lead  to  the  highest 
offices  in  the  state. 

As  all  these  classes  of  Christian  youths  were  taken 
from  their  parents  at  that  tender  age  when  the  doc- 
trines of  their  own  faith  could  hardly  have  taken  root 
in  their  minds,  they  were  without  difficulty  won  over 
to  the  faith  of  the  Koran  ;  which  was  further  com- 
mended to  their  choice  as  the  religion  of  the  state,  the 
only  one  which  opened  to  them  the  path  of  prefer- 
ment. Thus  set  apart  from  the  rest  of  the  community, 
and  cherished  by  royal  favor,  the  new  converts,  as  they 
rallied  round  the  throne  of  their  sovereign,  became 
more  stanch  in  their  devotion  to  his  interests,  as  well 
as  to  the  interests  of  the  religion  they  had  adopted, 
than  even  the  Turks  themselves. 

This  singular  institution  bore  hard  on  the  Christian 
population,  who  paid  this  heavy  tax  of  their  own  off- 


STATE 

CONDITION  OF   TURKEY.  317 

spring.  But  it  worked  well  for  the  monarchy,  which, 
acquiring  fresh  vigor  from  the  constant  infusion  of  new 
blood  into  its  veins,  was  slow  in  exhibiting  any  signs 
of  decrepitude  or  decay. 

The  most  important  of  these  various  classes  was  that 
of  the  janizaries,  whose  discipline  was  far  from  termi- 
nating with  the  school.  Indeed,  their  whole  life  may 
be  said  to  have  been  passed  in  war,  or  in  preparation 
for  it.  Forbidden  to  marry,  they  had  no  families  to 
engage  their  affections,  which,  as  with  the  monks  and 
friars  in  Christian  countries,  were  concentrated  on 
their  own  order,  whose  prosperity  was  inseparably 
connected  with  that  of  the  state.  Proud  of  the  privi- 
leges which  distinguished  them  from  the  rest  of  the 
army,  they  seemed  desirous  to  prove  their  title  to  them 
by  their  thorough  discipline  and  by  their  promjjtness 
to  execute  the  most  dangerous  and  difficult  services. 
Their  jDost  was  always  the  post  of  danger.  It  was  their 
proud  vaunt  that  they  had  never  fled  before  an  enemy. 
Clad  in  their  flowing  robes,  so  little  suited  to  the  war- 
rior, armed  with  the  arquebuse  and  the  scimitar, — 
in  their  hands  more  than  a  match  for  the  pike  or 
sword  of  the  European, — with  the  heron's  plume  wav- 
ing above  their  heads,  their  dense  array  might  ever  be 
seen  bearing  down  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight;  and 
more  than  once,  when  the  fate  of  the  empire  trembled 
in  the  balance,  it  was  this  invincible  corps  that  turned 
the  scale  and  by  their  intrepid  conduct  decided  the 
fortune  of  the  day.  Gathering  fresh  reputation  with 
age,  so  long  as  their  discipline  remained  unimpaired 
they  were  a  match  for  the  best  soldiers  of  Europe. 
But  in  time  this  admirable  organization  experienced  a 
27* 


3r8  THE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 

change.  One  sultan  allowed  them  to  marry ;  another, 
to  bring  their  sons  into  the  corps ;  a  third  opened  the 
ranks  to  Turks  as  well  as  Christians ;  until,  forfeiting 
their  peculiar  character,  the  janizaries  became  con- 
founded with  the  militia  of  the  empire.  These  changes 
occurred  in  the  time  of  Philip  the  Second ;  but  their 
consequences  were  not  fully  unfolded  till  the  following 
century. ' 

It  was  fortunate  for  the  Turks,  considering  the  un- 
limited power  lodged  in  the  hands  of  their  rulers,  that 
these  should  have  so  often  been  possessed  of  the  courage 
and  capacity  for  using  it  for  the  advancement  of  the 
nation.  From  Othman  the  First,  the  founder  of  the 
dynasty,  to  Solyman  the  Magnificent,  the  contemporary 
of  Philip,  the  Turkish  throne  was  filled  by  a  succession 
of  able  jDrinces,  who,  bred  to  war,  were  every  year 
enlarging  the  boundaries  of  the  empire  and  adding  to 
its  resources.  By  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
besides  their  vast  possessions  in  Asia,  they  held  the 
eastern  portions  of  Africa.  In  Europe,  together  with 
the  countries  at  this  day  acknowledging  their  sceptre, 
they  were  masters  of  Greece ;  and  Solyman,  overrun- 
ning Transylvania  and  Hungary,  had  twice  carried  his 
victorious  banners  up  to  the  walls  of  Vienna.     The 

'  For  the  preceding  pages  I  have  been  indebted,  among  other 
sources,  to  Sagredo,  "  Memorias  historicas  de  los  Monarcas  Otho- 
manos"  (trad.  Cast.,  Madrid,  1684),  and  to  Ranke,  "  Ottoman  and 
Spanish  Empires;"  to  the  latter  in  particular.  The  work  of  this  emi- 
nent scholar,  resting  as  it  mainly  does  on  the  contemporary  reports 
of  the  Venetian  ministers,  is  of  the  most  authentic  character;  while 
he  has  the  rare  talent  of  selecting  facts  so  significant  for  historical 
illustration  that  they  serve  the  double  purpose  of  both  facts  and 
reflections. 


AFRICAN  CORSAIRS. 


319 


battle-ground  of  the  Cross  and  the  Crescent  was  trans- 
ferred from  the  west  to  the  east  of  Europe ;  and  Ger- 
many in  the  sixteenth  century  became  what  Spain  and 
the  Pyrenees  had  been  in  the  eighth,  the  bulwark  of 
Christendom. 

Nor  was  the  power  of  Turkey  on  the  sea  less  for- 
midable than  on  the  land.  Her  fleet  rode  undisputed 
mistress  of  the  Levant ;  for  Venice,  warned  by  the 
memorable  defeat  at  Prevesa  in  1538,  and  by  the  loss 
of  C)'^prus  and  otlier  territories,  hardly  ventured  to 
renew  the  contest.  That  wily  republic  found  that  it 
was  safer  to  trust  to  diplomacy  than  to  arms,  in  her 
dealings  with  the  Ottomans. 

The  Turkish  navy,  sweeping  over  the  Mediterranean, 
combined  with  the  corsairs  of  the  Barbary  coast, — who, 
to  some  extent,  owed  allegiance  to  the  Porte, — and 
made  frequent  descents  on  the  coasts  of  Italy  and 
Spain,  committing  worse  ravages  than  those  of  the 
hurricane.  From  these  ravages  France  only  was  ex- 
empt ;  for  her  princes,  with  an  unscrupulous  policy 
which  caused  general  scandal  in  Christendom,  by  an 
alliance  with  the  Turks,  protected  her  territories  some- 
what at  the  expense  of  her  honor. 

The  northern  coast  of  Africa,  at  this  time,  was  occu- 
pied by  various  races,  who,  however  they  may  have 
differed  in  other  respects,  all  united  in  obedience  to 
the  Koran.  Among  them  was  a  large  infusion  of 
Moors  descended  from  the  Arab  tribes  who  had  once 
occupied  the  south  of  Spain,  and  who,  on  its  reconquest 
by  the  Christians,  had  fled  that  country  rather  than 
renounce  the  religion  of  their  fathers.  Many  even  of 
the  Moors  then  living  were  among  the  victims  of  this 


320 


THE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 


religious  persecution;  and  they  looked  with  longing 
eyes  on  the  beautiful  land  of  their  inheritance,  and 
with  feelings  of  unquenchable  hatred  on  the  Spaniards 
who  had  deprived  them  of  it. 

The  African  shore  was  studded  with  towns, — some 
of  them,  like  Algiers,  Tunis,  Tripoli,  having  a  large 
extent  of  territory  adjacent, — which  owned  the  sway 
of  some  Moslem  chief,  who  ruled  them  in  sovereign 
state,  or,  it  might  be,  acknowledging,  for  the  sake  of 
protection,  a  qualified  allegiance  to  the  Sultan.  These 
rude  chiefs,  profiting  by  their  maritime  position,  fol- 
lowed the  dreadful  trade  of  the  corsair.  Issuing 
from  their  strongholds,  they  fell  on  the  unprotected 
merchantman,  or,  descending  on  the  opposite  coasts 
of  Andalusia  and  Valencia,  sacked  the  villages  and 
swept  off  the  wretched  inhabitants  into  slavery. 

The  Castilian  government  did  what  it  could  for  the 
protection  of  its  subjects.  Fortified  posts  were  estab- 
lished along  the  shores.  Watch-towers  were  raised  on 
the  heights,  to  give  notice  of  the  approach  of  an  enemy. 
A  fleet  of  galleys,  kept  constantly  on  duty,  rode  off  the 
coasts  to  intercept  the  corsairs.  The  war  was  occa- 
sionally carried  into  the  enemy's  country.  Expeditions 
were  fitted  out  to  sweep  the  Barbary  shores  or  to  batter 
down  the  strongholds  of  the  pirates.  Other  states, 
whose  territories  bordered  on  the  Mediterranean,  joined 
in  these  expeditions;  among  them  Tuscany,  Rome,  Na- 
ples, Sicily, — the  two  last  the  dependencies  of  Spain, — 
and  above  all  Genoa,  whose  hardy  seamen  did  good 
service  in  these  maritime  wars.  To  these  should  be 
added  the  Knights  of  St.  John,  whose  little  island  of 
Malta,  with  its  iron  defences,  boldly  bidding  defiance 


AFRICAN  CORSAIRS. 


321 


to  tlie  enemy,  was  thrown  into  the  very  jaws,  as  it  were, 
of  the  African  coast.  Pledged  by  their  vows  to  per- 
petual war  with  the  infidel,  these  brave  knights,  thus 
stationed  on  the  outposts  of  Christendom,  were  the 
first  to  sound  the  alarm  of  an  invasion,  as  they  were 
foremost  to  repel  it. 

The  Mediterranean  in  that  day  presented  a  very 
different  spectacle  from  what  it  shows  at  present, — 
swarming,  as  it  does,  with  the  commerce  of  many  a 
distant  land,  and  its  shores  glittering  with  towns  and 
villages  that  echo  to  the  sounds  of  peaceful  and  pro- 
tected industry.  Long  tracts  of  deserted  territory 
might  then  be  seen  on  its  borders,  with  the  blackened 
ruins  of  many  a  hamlet,  proclaiming  too  plainly  the 
recent  presence  of  the  corsair.  The  condition  of  the 
peasantry  of  the  south  of  Spain,  in  that  day,  was  not 
unlike  that  of  our  New  England  ancestors,  whose  rural 
labors  might  at  any  time  be  broken  by  the  war-whoop 
of  the  savage,  as  he  burst  on  the  peaceful  settlement, 
sweeping  off  its  wretched  inmates — those  whom  he  did 
not  massacre — to  captivity  in  the  wilderness.  The 
trader,  instead  of  pushing  out  to  sea,  crept  timidly 
along  the  shore,  under  the  protecting  wings  of  its 
fortresses,  fearful  lest  the  fierce  enemy  might  dart  on 
him  unawares  and  bear  him  off  to  the  dungeons  of 
Africa.  Or,  if  he  ventured  out  into  the  open  deep,  it 
was  under  a  convoy  of  well-armed  galleys,  or,  armed 
to  the  teeth  himself,  prepared  for  war. 

Scarcely  a  day  passed  Avithout  some  conflict  between 

Christian  and  Moslem  on  the  Mediterranean  waters. 

Not  unfrequently,  instead  of  a  Moor,  the  command 

was  intrusted  to  some  Christian  renegade,  who,  having 

o* 


} 


322 


TJIB    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 


renounced  his  country  and  his  religion  for  the  roving 
life  of  a  corsair,  felt,  like  most  apostates,  a  keener 
hatred  than  even  its  natural  enemies  for  the  land  he 
had  abjured.'  In  these  encounters  there  were  often 
displayed,  on  both  sides,  such  deeds  of  heroism  as,  had 
they  been  performed  on  a  wider  theatre  of  action, 
would  have  covered  the  actors  with  immortal  glory. 
By  this  perpetual  warfare  a  race  of  hardy  and  expe- 
rienced seamen  was  formed  in  the  countries  bordering 
on  the  Mediterranean ;  and  more  than  one  name  rose 
to  eminence  for  nautical  science  as  well  as  valor,  with 
which  it  would  not  be  easy  to  find  a  parallel  in  other 
quarters  of  Christendom.  Such  were  the  Dorias  of 
Genoa, — a  family  to  whom  the  ocean  seemed  their 
native  element,  and  whose  brilliant  achievements  on 
its  waters,  through  successive  generations,  shed  an 
undying  lustre  on  the  arms  of  the  republic. 

The  corsair's  life  was  full  of  maritime  adventure. 
Many  a  tale  of  tragic  interest  was  told  of  his  exploits, 
and  many  a  sad  recital  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Christian 
captive,  tugging  at  the  oar,  or  pining  in  the  dungeons 
of  Tripoli  and  Algiers.  Such  tales  formed  the  burden 
of  the  popular  minstrelsy  of  the  period,  as  well  as  of 
more  elegant  literature,  —  the  drama,  and  romantic 
fiction.  But  fact  was  stranger  than  fiction.  It  would 
have  been  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  number  of  the 
Christian  captives,  or  the  amount  of  their  sufferings. 

=  Cervantes,  in  his  story  of  tlie  Captive's  adventures  in  Don  Quix- 
ote, tells  us  that  it  was  common  with  a  renegado  to  obtain  a  certificate 
from  some  of  the  Christian  captives  of  his  desire  to  return  to  Spain, 
so  that,  if  he  were  taken  in  arms  against  his  countrymen,  his  conduct 
would  be  set  down  to  compulsion,  and  he  would  thus  escape  the  fangs 
of  the  Inquisition. 


AFRICAN  CORSAIRS. 


323 


On  the  conquest  of  Tunis  by  Charles  the  Fifth,  in 
1535,  ten  thousand  of  these  unhappy  persons,  as  we 
are  assured,  walked  forth  from  its  dungeons,  and  knelt, 
with  tears  of  gratitude  and  joy,  at  the  feet  of  their 
liberator.  Charitable  associations  were  formed  in  Spain 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  raising  funds  to  ransom  the 
Barbary  prisoners.  But  the  ransom  demanded  was 
frequently  exorbitant,  and  the  efforts  of  these  benevo- 
lent fraternities  made  but  a  feeble  impression  on  the 
whole  number  of  captives. 

Thus  the  war  between  the  Cross  and  the  Crescent 
was  still  carried  on  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean, when  the  day  of  the  Crusades  was  past  in  most 
of  the  other  quarters  of  Christendom.  The  existence 
of  the  Spaniard — as  I  have  often  had  occasion  to  remark 
— was  one  long  crusade ;  and  in  the  sixteenth  century 
he  was  still  doing  battle  with  the  infidel  as  stoutly  as  in 
the  heroic  days  of  the  Cid.  The  furious  contests  with 
the  petty  pirates  of  Barbary  engendered  in  his  bosom 
feelings  of  even  keener  hostility  than  that  which  grew 
up  in  his  contests  with  the  Arabs,  where  there  was  no 
skulking,  predatory  foe,  but  army  was  openly  arrayed 
against  army  and  they  fought  for  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Peninsula.  The  feeling  of  religious  hatred  rekindled 
by  the  Moors  of  Africa  extended  in  some  degree  to  the 
Morisco  population,  who  still  occupied  those  territories 
on  the  southern  borders  of  the  monarchy  which  had 
belonged  to  their  ancestors,  the  Spanish  Arabs.  This 
feeling  was  increased  by  the  suspicion,  not  altogether 
without  foundation,  of  a  secret  correspondence  between 
the  Moriscos  and  their  brethren  on  the  Barbary  coast. 
These   mingled   sentiments   of  hatred   and   suspicion 


324 


7'HE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 


sharpened  the  sword  of  persecution,  and  led  to  most 
disastrous  consequences,  which  before  long  will  be 
unfolded  to  the  reader. 

Among  the  African  corsairs  was  one  by  the  name  of 
Dragut,  distinguished  for  his  daring  spirit  and  the  pes- 
tilent activity  with  which  he  pursued  the  commerce  of 
the  Spaniards.  In  early  life  he  had  been  made  prisoner 
by  Andrew  Doria ;  and  the  four  years  during  which  he 
was  chained  to  the  oar  in  the  galleys  of  Genoa  did  not 
serve  to  mitigate  the  feelings  of  hatred  which  he  had 
always  borne  to  the  Christians.  On  the  recovery  of 
his  freedom  he  resumed  his  desperate  trade  of  a  corsair 
with  renewed  activity.  Having  made  himself  master 
of  Tripoli,  he  issued  out,  with  his  galleys,  from  that 
stronghold,  fell  on  the  defenceless  merchantman,  rav- 
aged the  coasts,  engaged  boldly  in  fight  with  the 
Christian  sqqadrons,  and  made  his  name  as  terrible 
throughout  the  Mediterranean  as  that  of  Barbarossa 
had  been  in  the  time  of  Charles  the  Fifth. 

The  people  of  the  southern  provinces,  smarting  under 
their  sufferings,  had  more  than  once  besought  Philip  to 
send  an  expedition  against  Tripoli,  and,  if  possible, 
break  up  this  den  of  thieves  and  rid  the  Mediterranean 
of  the  formidable  corsair.  But  Philip,  who  was  in  the 
midst  of  his  victorious  campaigns  against  the  French, 
had  neither  the  leisure  nor  the  resources,  at  that  time, 
for  such  an  enterprise.  In  the  spring  of  1559,  however, 
he  gave  orders  to  the  duke  of  Medina  Celi,  viceroy  of 
Sicily,  to  fit  out  an  armament  for  the  purpose,  to  obtain 
the  co-operation  of  the  Italian  states,  and  to  take  com- 
mand of  the  expedition. 

A  worse  choice  for  the  command  could  not  have  been 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  TRIPOLI  325 

made  ;  and  this  not  so  much  from  the  duke's  inexperi- 
ence ;  for  an  apprenticeship  to  the  sea  was  not  deemed 
necessary  to  form  a  naval  commander,  in  an  age  when 
men  passed  indifferently  from  the  land-service  to  the 
sea-service.  But,  with  the  exception  of  personal  cour- 
age, the  duke  of  Medina  Cell  seems  to  have  possessed 
none  of  the  qualities  requisite  in  a  commander,  whether 
by  land  or  sea. 

The  different  Italian  powers — Tuscany,  Rome,  Na- 
ples, Sicily,  Genoa  —  all  furnished  their  respective 
quotas.  John  Andrew  Doria,  nephew  of  the  great 
Andrew,  and  worthy  of  the  name  he  bore,  had  com- 
mand of  the  galleys  of  the  republic.  To  these  was 
added  the  reinforcement  of  the  grand  master  of  Malta. 
The  whole  fleet  amounted  to  more  than  a  hundred  sail, 
fifty-four  of  which  were  galleys ;  by  much  the  larger 
part  being  furnished  by  Spain  and  her  Italian  prov- 
inces. Fourteen  thousand  troops  embarked  on  board 
the  squadron.  So  much  time  was  consumed  in  prepa- 
ration that  the  armament  was  not  got  ready  for  sea  till 
late  in  October,  1559, — too  late  for  acting  with  advan- 
tage on  the  stormy  African  coast. 

This  did  not  deter  the  viceroy,  who,  at  the  head  of 
the  combined  fleet,  sailed  out  of  the  port  of  Syracuse 
in  November.  But  the  elements  conspired  against  this 
ill-starred  expedition.  Scarcely  had  the  squadron  left 
the  port  when  it  was  assailed  by  a  tempest,  which  scat- 
tered the  vessels,  disabled  some,  and  did  serious  damage 
to  others.  To  add  to  the  calamity,  an  epidemic  broke 
out  among  the  men,  caused  by  the  bad  quality  of  the 
provisions  furnished  by  the  Genoese  contractors.  In 
his  distress,  the  duke  of  Medina  Cell  put  in  at  the 
Philip.— Vol.  II.  28 


326 


THE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 


island  of  Malta.  He  met  with  a  hospitable  reception 
from  the  grand  master ;  for  hospitality  was  one  of  the 
obligations  of  the  order.  Full  two  months  elapsed 
before  the  duke  was  in  a  condition  to  re-embark,  with 
his  force  reduced  nearly  one-third  by  disease  and  death. 
Meanwhile,  Dragut,  having  ascertained  the  object  of 
the  expedition,  had  made  every  effort  to  put  Tripoli  in 
a  posture  of  defence.  At  the  same  time  he  sent  to 
Constantinople,  to  solicit  the  aid  of  Solyman.  The 
Spanish  admiral,  in  the  crippled  condition  of  his  arma- 
ment, determined  to  postpone  the  attack  on  Tripoli  to 
another  time,  and  to  direct  his  operations  for  the  pres- 
ent against  the  island  of  Jerbah,  or,  as  it  was  called  by 
the  Spaniards,  Gelves.  This  place,  situated  scarcely  a 
league  from  the  African  shore,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Tripoli,  had  long  been  known  as  a  nest  of  pirates  who 
did  great  mischief  in  the  Mediterranean.  It  was  a 
place  of  ill  omen  to  the  Spaniards,  whose  arms  had  met 
there  with  a  memorable  reverse  in  the  reign  of  Ferdi- 
nand the  Catholic. 3  The  duke,  however,  landing  with 
his  whole  force,  experienced  little  resistance  from  the 
Moors,  and  soon  made  himself  master  of  the  place.  It 
was  defended  by  a  fortress  fallen  much  out  of  repair ; 
and,  as  the  Spanish  commander  proposed  to  leave  a 
garrison  there,  he  set  about  restoring  the  fortifications, 
or  rather  constructing  new  ones.  In  this  work  the 
whole  army  actively  engaged ;  but  nearly  two  months 
were  consumed  before  it  was  finished.  The  fortress 
was  then  mounted  with  artillery,  and  provided  with 
ammunition  and  whatever  was  necessary  for  its  defence. 

3  See  the  History  of  the  Reign  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  vol.  iii. 
part  ii.  chap.  21. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST   TRIPOLI 


327 


Finally,  a  garrison  was  introduced  into  it,  and  the 
command  intrusted  to  a  gallant  officer,  Don  Alvaro  de 
Sande. 

Scarcely  had  these  arrangements  been  completed, 
and  the  troops  prepared  to  re-embark,  when  advices 
reached  the  duke  that  a  large  Turkish  fleet  was  on  its 
way  from  Constantinople  to  the  assistance  of  Dragut. 
The  Spanish  admiral  called  a  council  of  war  on  board 
of  his  ship.  Opinions  were  divided.  Some,  among 
whom  was  Doria,  considering  the  crippled  condition 
of  their  squadron,  were  for  making  the  best  of  their 
way  back  to  Sicily.  Others,  regarding  this  as  a  course 
unworthy  of  Spaniards,  were  for  standing  out  to  sea 
and  giving  battle  to  the  enemy.  The  duke,  perplexed 
by  the  opposite  opinions,  did  not  come  to  a  decision. 
He  was  soon  spared  the  necessity  of  it  by  the  sight  of 
the  Ottoman  fleet,  under  full  sail,  bearing  rapidly  down 
on  him.  It  consisted  of  eighty-six  galleys,  each  carry- 
ing a  hundred  janizaries ;  and  it  was  commanded  by 
the  Turkish  admiral  Piali,  a  name  long  dreaded  in  the 
Mediterranean. 

At  the  sight  of  this  formidable  armament  the  Chris- 
tians were  seized  with  a  panic.  They  scarcely  offered 
any  resistance  to  the  enemy,  who,  dashing  into  the 
midst  of  them,  sent  his  broadsides  to  the  right  and  left, 
sinking  some  of  the  ships,  disabling  others,  while  those 
out  of  reach  of  his  guns  shamefully  sought  safety  in 
flight.  Seventeen  of  the  combined  squadron  were  sunk; 
four-and-twenty,  more  or  less  injured,  struck  their  col- 
ors ;  a  few  succeeded  in  regaining  the  island,  and  took 
shelter  under  the  guns  of  the  fortress.  Medina  Celi  and 
Doria  were  among  those  who  thus  made  their  way  to 


328  THE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 

the  shore  ;  and  under  cover  of  the  darkness,  on  the 
following  night,  they  effected  their  escape  in  a  frigate, 
passing,  as  by  a  miracle,  without  notice,  through  the 
enemy's  fleet,  and  thus  securing  their  retreat  to  Sicily. 
Never  was  there  a  victory  more  humiliating  to  the 
vanquished,  or  one  which  reflected  less  glory  on  the 
victors.'* 

Before  embarking,  the  duke  ordered  Sande  to  defend 
the  place  to  the  last  extremity,  promising  him  speedy 
assistance.  The  garrison,  thus  left  to  carry  on  the 
contest  with  the  whole  Turkish  army,  amounted  to 
about  five  thousand  men ;  its  original  strength  being 
considerably  augmented  by  the  fugitives  from  the  fleet. 

On  the  following  morning,  Piali  landed  with  his 
whole  force,  and  instantly  proceeded  to  open  trenches 
before  the  citadel.  When  he  had  established  his  bat- 
teries of  cannon,  he  sent  a  summons  to  the  garrison  to 
surrender.  Sande  returned  for  answer  that,  "if  the 
place  were  won,  it  would  not  be,  like  Piali's  late  vic- 
tory, without  bloodshed."  The  Turkish  commander 
waited  no  longer,  but  opened  a  lively  cannonade  on 
the  ramparts,  which  he  continued  for  some  days,  till  a 
practicable  breach  was  made.  He  then  ordered  a 
general  assault.  The  janizaries  rushed  forward  with 
their  usual  impetuosity,  under  a  murderous  discharge 
of  artillery  and  small  arms  from  the  fortress  as  well  as 
from  the  shipping,  which  was  so  situated  as  to  support 
the  fire  of  the  besieged.  Nothing  daunted,  the  brave 
Moslems  pushed  forward  over  the  bodies  of  their  fallen 

4  Ferreras,  Hist.  d'Espagne,  torn.  ix.  p.  415,  et  seq. — Herrera,  His- 
toria  genera],  lib.  v.  cap.  18. — Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  v.  cap.  8. 
— Sagrcdo,  Monarcas  Othomanos,  p.  234,  et  seq. 


DESPERATE  DEFENCE    OF  GEL  FES. 


329 


comrades ;  and,  scrambling  across  the  ditch,  the  lead- 
ing files  succeeded  in  throwing  themselves  into  the 
breach.  But  here  they  met  with  a  spirit  as  determined 
as  their  own,  from  the  iron  array  of  warriors,  armed 
with  pike  and  arquebuse,  who,  with  Sande  at  their 
head,  formed  a  wall  as  impenetrable  as  the  ramparts 
of  the  fortress.  The  contest  was  now  carried  on  man 
against  man,  and  in  a  space  too  narrow  to  allow  the 
enemy  to  profit  by  his  superior  numbers.  The  be- 
sieged, meanwhile,  from  the  battlements,  hurled  down 
missiles  of  every  description  on  the  heads  of  the 
assailants.  The  struggle  lasted  for  some  hours.  But 
Spanish  valor  triumphed  in  the  end,  and  the  enemy 
was  driven  back  in  disorder  across  the  moat,  while  his 
rear  files  were  sorely  galled,  in  his  retreat,  by  the  inces- 
sant fire  of  the  fortress. 

Incensed  by  the  failure  of  his  attack  and  the  slaughter 
of  his  brave  followers,  Piali  thought  it  prudent  to  wait 
till  he  should  be  reinforced  by  the  arrival  of  Dragut 
with  a  fresh  supply  of  men  and  of  battering-ordnance. 
The  besieged  profited  by  the  interval  to  repair  their 
works,  and  when  Dragut  appeared  they  were  nearly  as 
well  prepared  for  the  contest  as  before. 

On  the  corsair's  arrival,  Piali,  provided  with  a  heavier 
battering-train,  opened  a  more  effective  fire  on  the  cita- 
del. The  works  soon  gave  way,  and  the  Turkish  com- 
mander promptly  returned  to  the  assault.  It  was  con- 
ducted with  the  same  spirit,  was  met  with  the  same 
desperate  courage,  and  ended,  like  the  former,  in  the 
total  discomfiture  of  the  assailants,  who  withdrew, 
leaving  the  fosse  choked  up  with  the  bodies  of  their 
slaughtered  comrades.  Again  and  again  the  attack 
28* 


33° 


THE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 


was  renewed,  by  an  enemy  whose  numbers  allowed 
the  storming-parties  to  relieve  one  another,  while  the 
breaches  made  by  an  unintermitting  cannonade  gave 
incessant  occupation  to  the  besieged  in  repairing  them. 
Fortunately,  the  number  of  the  latter  enabled  them  to 
perform  this  difficult  service ;  and  though  many  were 
disabled,  and  there  were  few  v/ho  were  not  wounded, 
they  still  continued  to  stand  to  their  posts,  with  the 
same  spirit  as  on  the  iirst  day  of  the  siege. 

But  the  amount  of  the  garrison,  so  serviceable  in  this 
point  of  view,  was  fatal  in  another.  The  fortress  had 
been  provisioned  with  reference  to  a  much  smaller 
force.  The  increased  number  of  mouths  was  thus 
doing  the  work  of  the  enemy.  Notwithstanding  the 
strictest  economy,  there  was  already  a  scarcity  of  pro- 
visions ;  and  at  the  end  of  six  weeks  the  garrison  was 
left  entirely  without  food.  The  water  too  had  failed. 
A  soldier  had  communicated  to  the  Spanish  commander 
an  ingenious  process  for  distilling  fresh  water  from  salt.^ 
This  afforded  a  most  important  supply,  though  in  a 
very  limited  quantity.  But  the  wood  which  furnished 
the  fuel  necessary  for  the  process  was  at  length  ex- 
hausted, and  to  hunger  was  added  the  intolerable 
misery  of  thirst. 

Thus  reduced  to  extremity,  the  brave  Sande  was  not 
reduced  to  despair.  Calling  his  men  together,  he  told 
them  that  liberty  v/as  of  more  value  than  life.     Any 

s  "  Hallo  Don  Alvaro  un  remedio  para  la  falta  del  agua  que  en 
parte  ayudo  d  la  necessidad,  y  fue,  que  uno  de  su  campo  le  mostro, 
que  el  agua  salada  se  podia  destilar  por  alambique,  y  aunque  salio 
buena,  y  se  bevia,  no  se  hazia  tanta  que  bastasse,  y  se  gastava  mucha 
lena,  de  que  tenian  falta."     Herrera,  Historia  general,  torn,  i,  p.  434. 


DESPERATE  DEFENCE    OF  G ELVES. 


ZIT- 


thing  was  better  than  to  surrender  to  such  an  enemy. 
And  he  proposed  to  them  to  sally  from  the  fortress  that 
very  night,  and  cut  their  way,  if  possible,  through  the 
Turkish  army,  or  fall  in  the  attempt.  The  Spaniards 
heartily  responded  to  the  call  of  their  heroic  leader. 
They  felt,  like  him,  that  the  doom  of  slavery  was  more 
terrible  than  death. 

That  night,  or  rather  two  ho.urs  before  dawn  on  the 
twenty-ninth  of  June,  Don  Alvaro  sallied  out  of  the 
fortress,  at  the  head  of  all  those  who  were  capable  of 
bearing  arms.  But  they  amounted  to  scarcely  more 
than  a  thousand  men,  so  greatly  had  the  garrison  been 
diminished  by  death  or  disabled  by  famine  and  disease. 
Under  cover  of  the  darkness,  they  succeeded  in  passing 
through  the  triple  row  of  intrenchments  without  alarm- 
ing the  slumbering  enemy.  At  length,  roused  by  the 
cries  of  their  sentinels,  the  Turks  sprang  to  their  arms, 
and,  gathering  in  dark  masses  round  the  Christians, 
presented  an  impenetrable  barrier  to  their  advance. 
The  contest  now  became  furious;  but  it  was  short. 
The  heroic  little  band  were  too  much  enfeebled  by 
their  long  fatigues,  and  by  the  total  want  of  food  for 
the  last  two  days,  to  make  head  against  the  overwhelm- 
ing number  of  their  assailants.  Many  fell  under  the 
Turkish  scimitars,  and  the  rest,  after  a  fierce  struggle, 
were  forced  back  on  the  path  by  which  they  had  come, 
and  took  refuge  in  the  fort.  Their  dauntless  leader, 
refusing  to  yield,  succeeded  in  cutting  his  way  through 
the  enemy,  and  threw  himself  into  one  of  the  vessels 
in  the  port.  Here  he  was  speedily  followed  by  such  a 
throng  as  threatened  to  sink  the  bark  and  made  re- 
sistance hopeless.     Yielding  up  his  sword,  therefore. 


332 


THE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 


he  was  taken  prisoner,  and  led  off  in  triumph  to  the 
tent  of  the  Turkish  commander. 

On  the  same  day  the  remainder  of  the  garrison,  un- 
able to  endure  another  assault,  surrendered  at  discre- 
tion. Piali  had  now  accomplished  the  object  of  the 
expedition ;  and,  having  re-established  the  Moorish 
authorities  in  possession  of  the  place,  he  embarked, 
with  his  whole  army,  for  Constantinople.  The  tidings 
of  his  victory  had  preceded  him ;  and,  as  he  proudly 
sailed  up  the  Bosphorus,  he  was  greeted  with  thunders 
of  artillery  from  the  seraglio  and  the  heights  surround- 
ing the  capital.  First  came  the  Turkish  galleys,  in 
beautiful  order,  with  the  banners  taken  from  the  Chris- 
tians ignominiously  trailing  behind  them  through  the 
water.  Then  followed  their  prizes, — the  seventeen 
vessels  taken  in  the  action, — the  battered  condition  of 
which  formed  a  striking  contrast  to  that  of  their  con- 
querors. But  the  prize  greater  than  all  was  the  prison- 
ers, amounting  to  nearly  four  thousand,  who,  manacled 
like  so  many  malefactors,  were  speedily  landed,  and 
driven  through  the  streets,  amidst  the  shouts  and  hoot- 
ings  of  the  populace,  to  the  slave-market  of  Constan- 
tinople. A  few  only,  of  the  higher  order,  were  re- 
served for  ransom.  Among  them  were  Don  Alvaro  de 
Sande  and  a  son  of  Medina  Celi.  The  young  noble- 
man did  not  long  survive  his  captivity.  Don  Alvaro 
recovered  his  freedom,  and  lived  to  take  ample  ven- 
geance for  all  he  had  suffered  on  his  conquerors. * 

*  For  the  account  of  the  heroic  defence  of  Gelves,  s^e — and  recon- 
cile, if  the  reader  can — Herrcra,  ubi  supra ;  Ferreras,  Hist.  d'Espagne, 
torn.  ix.  pp.  416-421 ;  Leti,  Filippo  II.,  torn.  i.  pp.  349-352;  Cabrera, 
Filipe  Segundo,  hb.  v.  cap.  11, 12;  Campana,  Vita  di  Filippo  II.,  par, 


fVAJi    ON   THE  BARBAE  y  COAST. 


333 


Such  was  the  end  of  the  disastrous  expedition  against 
Tripoli,  which  left  a  stain  on  the  Spanish  arms  that 
even  the  brave  conduct  of  the  garrison  at  Gelves  could 
not  wholly  wipe  away.  The  Moors  were  greatly  elated 
by  the  discomfiture  of  their  enemies ;  and  the  Spaniards 
were  filled  with  a  proportionate  degree  of  despondency, 
as  they  reflected  to  what  extent  their  coasts  and  their 
commerce  would  be  exposed  to  the  predatory  incur- 
sions of  the  corsairs.  Philip  was  especially  anxious  in 
regard  to  the  safety  of  his  possessions  on  the  African 
coast.  The  two  principal  of  these  were  Oran  and  Ma- 
zarquivir,  situated  not  far  to  the  west  of  Algiers.  They 
were  the  conquests  of  Cardinal  Ximenes.  The  former 
place  was  won  by  an  expedition  fitted  out  at  his  own 
expense.  The  enterprises  of  this  remarkable  man  were 
conducted  on  a  gigantic  scale,  which  might  seem  better 
suited  to  the  revenues  of  princes.  Of  the  two  places 
Oran  was  the  more  considerable ;  yet  hardly  more  im- 
portant than  Mazarquivir,  which  possessed  an  excellent 
harbor, — a  thing  of  rare  occurrence  on  the  Barbary 
shore.  Both  had  been  cherished  with  care  by  the 
Castilian  government,  and  by  no  monarch  more  than 
by  Philip  the  Second,  who  perfectly  understood  the 
importance  of  these  possessions,  both  for  the  advan- 
tages of  a  commodious  harbor,  and  for  the  means 
they  gave  him  of  bridling  the  audacity  of  the  African 
cruisers.^ 

ii.  lib.  12 ;  Sagredo,  Monarcas  Othomanos,  p.  237,  et  seq. — Sepulveda, 
De  Rebus  gestis  Philippi  II.,  pp.  63-87. 

7  "  Questa  sola  utilitk  ne  cava  il  Re  di  quei  luoghi  per  conservatione 
de'  quali  spende  ogni  anno  gran  somma  di  denari  delle  sue  entrate." 
Relatione  de  Soriano,  1560,  MS. 


334 


THE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 


In  1562,  the  king  ordered  a  squadron  of  four-and- 
twenty  galleys,  under  the  command  of  Don  Juan  de 
Mendoza,  to  be  got  ready  in  the  port  of  Malaga,  to 
carry  supplies  to  the  African  colonies.  But  in  crossing 
the  Mediterranean  the  ships  were  assailed  by  a  furious 
tempest,  which  compelled  them  to  take  refuge  in  the 
little  port  of  Herradura.  The  fury  of  the  storm,  how- 
ever, continued  to  increase ;  and  the  vessels,  while 
riding  at  anchor,  dashed  one  against  another  with  such 
violence  that  many  of  them  foundered,  and  others, 
parting  their  cables,  drifted  on  shore,  which  was  cov- 
ered far  and  wide  with  the  dismal  wrecks.  Two  or 
three  only,  standing  out  to  sea  and  braving  the  hurri- 
cane on  the  deep,  were  so  fortunate  as  to  escape.  By 
this  frightful  shipwreck,  four  thousand  men,  including 
their  commander,  were  swallowed  up  by  the  waves. 
The  southern  provinces  were  filled  with  consternation 
at  this  new  calamity,  coming  so  soon  after  the  defeat 
at  Gelves.  It  seemed  as  if  the  hand  of  Providence 
was  lifted  against  them  in  their  wars  with  the  Mussul- 
mans.® 

The  Barbary  Moors,  encouraged  by  the  losses  of  the 
Spanish  navy,  thought  this  a  favorable  time  for  recover- 
ing their  ancient  possessions  on  the  coast.  Hassem, 
the  dey  of  Algiers,  in  particular,  a  warlike  prince,  who 
had  been  engaged  in  more  than  one  successful  en- 
counter with  the  Christians,  set  on  foot  an  expedition 
against  the  territories  of  Oran  and  Mazarquivir.  The 
government  of  these  places  was  intrusted,  at  that  time, 
to  Don  Alonzo  de  Cordova,  count  of  Alcaudete.     In 

8  Ferreras,  Hist.  d'Espagne,  torn.  ix.  p.  426. — Sepulveda,  De  Rebus 
gestis  Philippi  II.,  p.  90. 


WAJi    ON  THE   BARBAE  Y  COAST. 


335 


this  post  he  had  succeeded  his  father,  a  gallant  soldier, 
•who,  five  years  before,  had  been  slain  in  battle  by  this 
very  Hassem,  the  lord  of  Algiers.  Eight  thousand 
Spaniards  had  fallen  with  him  on  the  field,  or  had  been 
made  prisoners  of  war.'  Such  were  the  sad  auspices 
under  which  the  reign  of  Philip  the  Second  began,  in 
his  wars  with  the  Moslems. '° 

Oran,  at  this  time,  was  garrisoned  by  seventeen  hun- 
dred men ;  and  twenty-seven  pieces  of  artillery  were 
mounted  on  its  walls.  Its  fortifications  were  in  good 
repair ;  but  it  was  in  no  condition  to  stand  a  siege  by 
so  formidable  a  force  as  that  which  Hassem  was  muster- 
ing in  Algiers.  The  count  of  Alcaudete,  the  governor, 
a  soldier  worthy  of  the  illustrious  stock  from  which  he 
sprang,  lost  no  time  in  placing  both  Oran  and  Mazar- 

9  The  details  of  the  battle  were  given,  in  a  letter  dated  September 
Sth,  1558,  by  Don  Alonzo  to  the  king.  His  father  fell,  it  seems,  in 
an  attempt  to  rescue  his  younger  son  from  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 
Though  the  father  died,  the  son  was  saved.  It  was  the  same  Don 
Martin  de  Cordova  who  so  stoutly  defended  Mazarquivir  against 
Hassem  afterwards,  as  mentioned  in  the  text.  Carta  de  Don  Alonso 
de  Cordova  al  Rey,  de  Toledo,  MS. 

'0  The  tidings  of  this  sad  disaster,  according  to  Cabrera,  hastened 
the  death  of  Charles  the  Fifth  (Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  iv.  cap.  13).  But 
a  letter  from  the  imperial  secretary,  Gaztelu,  informs  us  that  care  was 
taken  that  the  tidings  should  not  reach  the  ear  of  his  dying  master : 
"  La  muerte  del  conde  de  Alcaudete  y  su  desbarato  se  entendio  aqui 
por  carta  de  Dn  Alonso  su  hijo  que  despacho  un  correo  desde  Toledo 
con  la  nucva  y  por  ser  tan  ruyn  y  estar  S.  Magd.  en  tal  disposicion 
no  se  le  dixo,  y  se  tendra  cuydado  de  que  tampoco  la  sepa  hasta  que 
plazca  d  Dios  este  libre ;  porque  no  se  yo  si  hay  ninguno  en  cuyo 
tiempo  haya  sucedido  tan  gran  desgracia  como  esta."  Carta  de  Mar- 
tin de  Gaztelu  al  Secretario  Molina,  de  Yuste,  Set.  12,  1558,  MS.^ 
The  original  of  this  letter,  like  that  of  the  preceding,  is  in  the  Archives 
of  Simancas. 


336  THE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 

quivir  in  the  best  state  of  defence  which  his  means 
allowed,  and  in  acquainting  Philip  with  the  peril  in 
which  he  stood. 

Meanwhile,  the  Algerine  chief  was  going  briskly  for- 
ward with  his  preparations.  Besides  his  own  vassals, 
he  summoned  to  his  aid  the  petty  princes  of  the  neigh- 
boring country;  and  in  a  short  time  he  had  assembled 
a  host  in  which  Moors,  Arabs  and  Turks  were  promis- 
cuously mingled,  and  which,  in  the  various  estimates 
of  the  Spaniards,  rose  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  thousand 
men. 

Little  reliance  can  be  placed  on  the  numerical  esti- 
mates of  the  Spaniards  in  their  wars  with  the  infidel. 
The  gross  exaggeration  of  the  numbers  brought  by  the 
enemy  into  the  field,  and  the  numbers  he  was  sure  to 
leave  there,  with  the  corresponding  diminution  of  their 
own  in  both  particulars,  would  seem  to  infer  that  in 
these  religious  wars  they  thought  some  miracle  was 
necessary  to  show  that  Heaven  was  on  their  side,  and 
the  greater  the  miracle  the  greater  the  glory.  This 
hyperbolical  tone,  characteristic  of  the  old  Spaniards, 
and  said  to  have  been  imported  from  the  East,  is  par- 
ticularly visible  in  the  accounts  of  their  struggles  with 
the  Spanish  Arabs,  where  large  masses  were  brought 
into  the  field  on  both  sides,  and  where  the  reports 
of  a  battle  took  indeed  the  coloring  of  an  Arabian 
tale.  The  same  taint  of  exaggeration,  though  some- 
what mitigated,  continued  to  a  much  later  period,  and 
may  be  observed  in  the  reports  of  the  contests  with  the 
Moslems,  whether  Turks  or  Moors,  in  the  sixteenth 
century. 

On  the  fifteenth  of  March,  1563,  Hassem  left  Algiers, 


WAR    ON  THE  BARBAE  Y  COAST. 


337 


at  the  head  of  his  somewhat  miscellaneous  array,  send- 
ing his  battering-train  of  artillery  round  by  water,  to 
meet  him  at  the  port  of  Mazarquivir.  He  proposed 
to  begin  by  the  sie'^e  of  this  place,  which,  while  it 
would  afford  a  convenient  harbor  for  his  navy,  would, 
by  its  commanding  position,  facilitate  the  conquest  of 
Oran.  Leaving  a  strong  body  of  men,  therefore,  for 
the  investment  of  the  latter,  he  continued  his  march 
on  Mazarquivir,  situated  at  only  two  leagues'  distance. 
The  defence  of  this  place  was  intrusted  by  Alcaudete 
to  his  brother,  Don  Martin  de  Cordova.  Its  fortifica- 
tions were  in  good  condition,  and  garnished  with  near 
thirty  pieces  of  artillery.  It  was  garrisoned  by  five 
hundred  men,  was  well  provided  with  ammunition, 
and  was  victualled  for  a  two  months'  siege.  It  was 
also  protected  by  a  detached  fort,  called  St.  Michael, 
built  by  the  count  of  Alcaudete,  and,  from  its  com- 
manding position,  now  destined  to  be  the  first  object 
of  attack.  The  fort  was  occupied  by  a  few  hundred 
Spaniards,  who,  as  it  was  of  great  moment  to  gain  time 
for  the  arrival  of  succors  from  Spain,  were  ordered  to 
maintain  it  to  the  last  extren^ity. 

Hassem  \vas  not  long  in  opening  trenches.  Im- 
patient, however,  of  the  delay  of  his  fleet,  which  was 
detained  by  the  weather,  he  determined  not  to  wait  for 
the  artillery,  but  to  attempt  to  carry  the  fort  by  esca- 
lade. In  this  attempt,  though  conducted  with  spirit, 
he  met  with  so  decided  a  repulse  that  he  abandoned 
the  project  of  further  operations  till  the  arrival  of  his 
ships.  No  sooner  did  this  take  place  than,  landing  his 
heavy  guns,  he  got  them  into  position  as  speedily  as 
possible,  and  opened  a  lively  cannonade  on  the  walls 
Philip. — Vol.  II. — p  29 


338  THE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 

of  the  fortress.  The  walls  were  of  no  great  strength. 
A  breach  was  speedily  made ;  and  Hassem  gave  orders 
for  the  assault. 

No  sooner  was  the  signal  given  than  Moor,  Turk, 
Arab, — the  various  races  in  whose  veins  glowed  the  hot 
blood  of  the  south, — sprang  impetuously  forward.  In 
vain  the  leading  files,  as  they  came  on,  were  swept 
away  by  the  artillery  of  the  fortress,  while  the  guns  of 
Mazarquivir  did  equal  execution  on  their  flank.  The 
tide  rushed  on,  with  an  enthusiasm  that  overleaped 
every  obstacle.  Each  man  seemed  emulous  of  his  com- 
rade, as  if  desirous  to  show  the  superiority  of  his  own 
tribe  or  race.  The  ditch,  choked  up  with  the  debris 
of  the  rampart  and  the  fascines  that  had  been  thrown 
into  it,  was  speedily  crossed ;  and  while  some  sprang 
fearlessly  into  the  breach,  others  endeavored  to  scale 
the  Avails.  But  everywhere  they  were  met  by  men  as 
fresh  for  action  as  themselves,  and  possessed  of  a  spirit 
as  intrepid.  The  battle  raged  along  the  parapet,  and 
in  the  breach,  whei3  the  struggle  was  deadliest.  It 
was  the  old  battle,  so  often  fought,  of  the  Crescent 
and  the  Cross,  the  fiery  African  and  the  cool,  indom- 
itable European.  Arquebuse  and  pike,  sabre  and  scim- 
itar, clashed  fearfully  against  each  other;  while  high 
above  the  din  rose  the  war-cries  of  "Allah!"  and  "St. 
Jago  !"  showing  the  creeds  and  countries  of  the  com- 
batants. 

At  one  time  it  seemed  as  if  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
Moslems  would  prevail ;  and  twice  the  standard  of  the 
Crescent  was  planted  on  the  walls.  But  it  was  speedily 
torn  down  by  the  garrison,  and  the  bold  adventurers 
who  had  planted  it  thrown  headlong  into- the  moat. 


H^A/i    ON  THE  BARBARY  COAST. 


339 


Meanwhile,  an  incessant  fire  of  musketry  was  kept 
up  from  the  ramparts;  and  hand-grenades,  mingled 
with  barrels  of  burning  pitch,  were  hurled  down  on  the 
heads  of  the  assailants,  whose  confusion  was  increased 
as  their  sight  was  blinded  by  the  clouds  of  smoke  which 
rose  from  the  fascines  that  had  taken  fire  in  the  ditch. 
But,  although  their  efforts  began  to  slacken,  they  were 
soon  encouraged  by  fresh  detachments  sent  to  their 
support  by  Hassem,  .and  the  fight  was  renewed  with 
redoubled  fury.  These  efforts,  however,  proved  equally 
ineffectual.  The  Moors  were  driven  back  on  all  points ; 
and,  giving  way  before  the  invincible  courage  of  the 
Spaniards,  they  withdrew  in  such  disorder  across  the 
fosse,  now  bridged  over  with  the  bodies  of  the  slain, 
that,  if  the  garrison  had  been  strong  enough  in  num- 
bers, they  might  have  followed  the  foe  to  his  trenches 
and  inflicted  such  a  blow  as  would  at  once  have  termi- 
nated the  siege.  As.it  was,  the  loss  of  the  enemy  was 
fearful :  while  that  of  the  Spaniards,  screened  by  their 
defences,  Avas  comparatively  light.  Yet  a  hundred  lives 
of  the  former,  so  overwhelming  were  their  numbers, 
were  of  less  account  than  a  single  life  among  the  latter. 
The  heads  of  fifty  Turks,  who  had  fallen  in  the  breach 
or  in  the  ditch,  were  cut  off,  as  we  are  told,  by  the  gar- 
rison, and  sent,  as  the  grisly  trophies  of  their  victory, 
to  Oran  ; "  showing  the  feelings  of  bitter  hatred — per- 
haps of  fear — with  which  this  people  was  regarded  by 
the  Christians. 

The  Moorish  chief,  chafing  under  this  loss,  reopened 
his  fire  on  the  fortress  with  greater  fury  than  ever.  He 
then  renewed  the  assault,  but  with  no  better  success. 

»»  Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  vi.  cap.  lo. 


34° 


THE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 


A  third  and  a  fourth  time  he  returned  to  the  attack, 
but  in  vain.  In  vain,  too,  Hassem  madly  tore  off  his 
turban,  and,  brandishing  his  scimitar,  with  imprecations 
on  his  men,  drove  them  forward  to  the  fight.  There 
was  no  lack  of  spirit  in  his  followers,^ who  poured  out 
their  blood  like  water.  But  it  could  not  shake  the 
constancy  of  the  Spaniards,  which  seemed  even  to 
grow  stronger  as  their  situation  became  more  desperate; 
and  as  their  defences  were  swept  away,  they  threw 
themselves  on  their  knees,  and  from  behind  the  ruins 
still  poured  down  their  volleys  of  musketry  on  the 
assailants. 

Yet  they  could  not  have  maintained  their  ground  so 
long,  but  for  a  seasonable  reinforcement  received  from 
Mazarquivir.  But,  however  high  the  spirit,  there  is  a 
limit  to  the  powers  of  endurance ;  and  the  strength  of 
the  garrison  was  rapidly  giving  way  under  incessant 
vigils  and  want  of  food.  Their  fortifications,  more- 
over, pierced  through  and  through  by  the  enemy's  shot, 
were  no  longer  tenable ;  and  a  mine,  which  Hassem 
was  now  prepared  to  run  under  the  ramparts,  would 
complete  the  work  of  destruction.  They  had  obeyed 
their  orders,  and  stood  to  their  defence  gallantly  to  the 
last ;  and  they  now  obtained  leave  to  abandon  the  fort. 
On  the  seventh  of  May,  after  having  sustained  eight 
assaults  and  a  siege  of  three  weeks  from  a  host-  so 
superior  to  them  in  numbers,  the  garrison  marched  out 
of  the  fortress  of  St.  Michael.  Under  cover  of  the 
guns  of  Mazarquivir,  they  succeeded  in  rejoining  their 
comrades  there  with  but  little  loss,  and  were  gladly 
welcomed  by  their  commander,  Don  Martin  de  Cor- 
dova, who  rendered  them  the  honor  due  to  their  heroic 


WJ/i    ON  THE  BARBAE  Y  COAST. 


341 


conduct.  That  same  day  Kassem  took  possession  of 
the  fortress.     He  found  only  a  heap  of  ruins." 

The  Moorish  prince,  stung  with  mortification  at  the 
price  he  had  paid  for  his  victory,  and  anxious,  more- 
over, to  anticipate  the  arrival  of  succors  from  Spain, 
now  eagerly  pressed  forward  the  siege  of  Mazarquivir. 
With  the  assistance  of  his  squadron,  the  place  was 
closely  invested  by  sea  and  land.  Batteries  of  heavy 
guns  were  raised  on  opposite  sides  of  the  castle ;  and 
for  ten  days  they  thundered,  without  interruption,  on 
its  devoted  walls.  When  these  had  been  so  far  shaken 
as  to  afford  an  opening  to  the  besiegers,  Hassem,  willing 
to  spare  the  further  sacrifice  of  his  men,  sent  a  summons 
to  Don  Martin  to  surrender,  intimating,  at  the  same 
time,  that  the  works  were  in  too  ruinous  a  condition  to 
be  defended.  To  this  the  Spaniard  coolly  replied  that, 
"if  they  were  in  such  a  condition,  Hassem  might  come 
and  take  them." 

On  the  signal  from  their  chief,  the  Moors  moved 
rapidly  forward  to  the  attack,  and  were  soon  brought 
face  to  face  with  their  enemy.  A  bloody  conflict  fol- 
lowed, in  the  breach  and  on  the  ramparts.  It  continued 
more  than  five  hours.  The  assailants  found  they  had 
men  of  the  same  mettle  to  deal  with  as  before,  and  with 
defences  yet  stronger  than  those  they  had  encountered 
in  the  fortress  of  St.  Michael.      Here  again  the  ardor 

J2  For  this  siege,  the  particulars  of  which  are  given  in  a  manner 
sufficiently  confused  by  most  of  the  writers,  see  Ferreras,  Hist.  d'Es- 
pagne,  torn.  ix.  p.  431,  et  seq. ;  Cabrera,  Filipe  Segimdo,  lib.  vi.  cap. 
10;  Sepulveda,  De  Rebus  gestis  Philippi  II.,  p.  94;  Salazar  de  Men- 
doza,  Monarquia  de  Espana  (Madrid,  1770),  tom.  ii.  p.  127 ;  Miniana, 
Historia  de  Espana,  pp.  341,  342;  Caro  de  Torres,  Historia  de  las 
Ordenes  militares,  fol.  154. 

29* 


342 


THE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE, 


of  the  African  proved  no  match  for  the  cool  and  steady 
courage  of  the  European ;  and  Hassem's  forces,  repulsed 
on  every  quarter,  withdrew  in  so  mangled  a  condition 
to  their  trenches  that  he  was  in  no  state  for  several 
days  to  renew  tlie  assault. '^ 

It  would  be  tedious  to  rehearse  the  operations  of  a 
siege  so  closely  resembling  in  its  details  that  of  the 
fortress  of  St.  Michael.  The  most  conspicuous  figure  in 
the  bloody  drama  was  the  commander  of  the  garrison, 
Don  Martin  de  Cordova.  Freely  exposing  himself  to 
hardship  and  danger  with  the  meanest  of  his  followers, 
he  succeeded  in  infusing  his  own  unconquerable  spirit 
into  their  bosoms.  On  the  eve  of  an  assault  he  might 
be  seen  passing  through  the  ranks  with  a  crucifix  in  his 
hand,  exhorting  his  men,  by  the  blessed  sign  of  their 
redemption,  to  do  their  duty,  and  assuring  them  of  the 
protection  of  Heaven.''*  Every  soldier,  kindling  with 
the  enthusiasm  of  his  leader,  looked  on  himself  as  a 
soldier  of  the  Cross,  and  felt  assured  that  the  shield  of 
the  Almighty  must  be  stretched  over  those  who  were 
thus  fighting  the  battles  of  the  Faith.  The  women 
caught  somewhat  of  the  same  generous  ardor,  and, 
instead  of  confining  themselves  to  the  feminine  occu- 
pations of  nursing  the  sick  and  the  wounded,  took  an 
active  part  in  the  duties  of  the  soldiers  and  helped  to 
lighten  their  labors. 

Still,  the  condition  of  the  garrison  became  daily 
more  precarious,  as  their  strength  diminished  and  their 

»3  According  to  Cabrera  (Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  vi.  cap.  12),  two 
thousand  infidels  fell  on  this  occasion,  and  only  ten  Christians ;  a  fair 
proportion  for  a  Christian  historian  to  allow.     Ex  uno,  etc. 

'4  Ferreras,  Hist.  d'Espagne,  torn.  ix.  p.  455. 


IFAJi    ON  THE  BARBAE  Y  COAST. 


343 


defences  crumbled  around  them  under  the  incessant 
fire  of  tlie  besiegers.  The  count  of  Alcaudete  in  vain 
endeavored  to  come  to  their  relief,  or  at  least  to  effect 
a  diversion  in  their  favor.  Sallying  out  of  Oran,  he 
had  more  than  one  sharp  encounter  with  the  enemy. 
But  the  odds  against  him  were  too  great ;  and,  though 
he  spread  carnage  among  the  Moslem  ranks,  he  could 
ill  afford  the  sacrifice  of  life  that  it  cost  him.  In  the 
mean  time,  the  two  garrisons  were  assailed  by  an  enemy 
from  within,  more  inexorable  than  the  enemy  at  their 
gates.  Famine  had  begun  to  show  itself  in  some  of 
its  hideous  forms.  They  were  already  reduced  to  the 
necessity  of  devouring  the  flesh  of  their  horses  and 
asses ;  '^  and  even  that  was  doled  out  so  scantily  as  too 
plainly  intimated  that  this  sustenance,  wretched  as  it 
was,  was  soon  to  fail  them.  Under  these  circumstances, 
their  spirits  would  have  sunk,  had  they  not  been  sus- 
tained by  the  exj^ectation  of  succor  from  Spain ;  and 
they  cast  many  a  wistful  glance  on  the  Mediterranean, 
straining  their  eyes  to  the  farthest  verge  of  the  horizon, 
to  see  if  they  could  not  descry  some  friendly  sail  upon 
the  waters. 

But  Philip  was  not  unmindful  of  them.  Independ- 
ently of  the  importance  of  the  posts,  he  felt  his  honor 
to  be  deeply  concerned  in  the  protection  of  the  brave 
men  who  were  battling  there  for  the  cause  not  merely 
of  Castile,  but  of  Christendom.  No  sooner  had  he 
been  advised  by  Alcaudete  of  the  peril  in  which  he 
stood  than  he  gave  orders  that  a  fleet  should  be  equipped 
to  go  to  his  relief.  But  such  orders,  in  the  disabled 
condition  of  the  navy,  were  more  easily  given   than 

'S  Campana,  Vita  di  Filippo  II.,  torn.  ii.  p.  138. 


344 


THE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 


executed.  Still,  efforts  were  made  to  assemble  an  arma- 
ment and  get  it  ready  in  the  shortest  possible  time. 
Even  the  vessels  employed  to  convoy  the  India  galleons 
were  pressed  into  the  service.  The  young  cavaliers  of 
the  southern  provinces  eagerly  embarked  as  volunteers 
in  an  expedition  which  afforded  them  an  opportunity 
for  avenging  the  insults  offered  to  the  Spanish  arms. 
The  other  states  bordering  on  the  Mediterranean,  which 
had,  in  fact,  almost  as  deep  an  interest  in  the  cause 
as  Spain  herself,  promptly  furnished  their  contingents. 
To  these  were  to  be  added,  as  usual,  the  galleys  of  the 
Knights  of  Malta,  always  foremost  to  unfurl  the  banner 
in  a  war  with  the  inlidel.  In  less  than  two  months  an 
armament  consisting  of  forty-two  large  galleys,  besides 
smaller  vessels,  well  manned  and  abundantly  supplied 
with  provisions  and  military  stores,  was  assembled  in 
the  port  of  Malaga.  It  was  placed  under  the  command 
of  Don  Antonio  de  Mendoza,  who,  on  the  sixth  of 
June,  weighed  anchor  and  steered  directly  for  the  Bar- 
bary  coast. 

On  the  morning  of  the  eighth,  at  early  dawn,  the 
sentinels  on  the  ramparts  of  Mazarquivir  descried  the 
fleet  like  a  dark  speck  on  the  distant  waters.  As  it  drew 
nearer,  and  the  rising  sun,  glancing  on  the  flag  of  Cas- 
tile, showed  that  the  long-promised  succor  was  at  hand, 
the  exhausted  garrison,  almost  on  the  brink  of  despair, 
gave  themselves  up  to  a  delirium  of  joy.  They  em- 
braced one  another,  like  men  rescued  from  a  terrible 
fate,  and,  with  swelling  hearts,  offered  up  thanksgivings 
to  the  Almighty  for  their  deliverance.  Soon  the  cannon 
of  Mazarquivir  proclaimed  the  glad  tidings  to  the  gar- 
rison of  Oran,  who  replied  from  their  battlements  in 


WA/C    ON   THE   BARBARY  COAST. 


345 


thunders  which  carried  dismay  into  the  hearts  of  the 
besiegers.  If  Hassem  had  any  doubt  of  the  cause  of 
these  rejoicings,  it  was  soon  dispelled  by  several  Moor- 
ish vessels,  which,  scudding  before  the  enemy,  like  the 
smaller  birds  before  the  eagle,  brought  report  that  a 
Spanish  fleet  under  full  sail  was  standing  for  Mazar- 
quivir. 

No  time  was  to  be  lost.  He  commanded  his  ships 
lying  in  the  harbor  to  slip  their  cables  and  make  the 
best  of  their  way  to  Algiers.  Orders  were  given  at 
once  to  raise  the  siege.  Every  thing  was  abandoned. 
Whatever  could  be  of  service  to  the  enemy  was  de- 
stroyed. Hassem  caused  his  guns  to  be  overcharged, 
and  blew  them  to  pieces.'*  He  disencumbered  himself 
of  whatever  might  retard  his  movements,  and,  without 
further  delay,  began  his  retreat. 

No  sooner  did  Alcaudete  descry  the  army  of  the 
besiegers  on  its  marcli  across  the  hills  than  he  sallied 
out,  at  the  head  of  his  cavalry,  to  annoy  them  on  their 
retreat.  He  was  soon  joined  by  his  brother  from  Ma- 
zarquivir,  with  such  of  the  garrison  as  were  in  condition 
for  service.  But  the  enemy  had  greatly  the  start  of 
them.  When  the  Spaniards  came  up  with  his  rear- 
guard, they  found  it  entirely  composed  of  janizaries ; 
and  this  valiant  corps,  maintaining  its  usual  discipline, 
faced  about  and  opposed  so  determined  a  front  to  the 
assailants  that  Alcaudete,  not  caring  to  risk  the  advan- 
tages he  had  alread}^  gained,  drew  off  his  men  and  left 
a  free  passage  to  the  enemy.  The  soldiers  of  the  two 
garrisons  now  mingled  together  and  congratulated  one 
another  on  their  happy  deliverance,  recounting  their 

i6  Ferreras,  Hist.  d'Espngne,  torn.  ix.  p.  461. 
P* 


346  THE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 

exploits  and  the  perils  and  privations  they  had  en- 
dured; while  Alcaudete,  embracing  his  heroic  brother, 
could  hardly  restrain  his  tears  as  he  gazed  on  his  wan, 
emaciated  countenance  and  read  there  the  story  of 
his  sufferings. 

The  tidings  of  the  repulse  of  the  Moslems  were  re- 
ceived with  unbounded  joy  throughout  Spain.  The 
deepest  sympathy  had  been  felt  for  the  brave  men  who, 
planted  on  the  outposts  of  the  empire,  seemed  to  have 
been  abandoned  to  their  fate.  The  king  shared  in  the 
public  sentiment,  and  showed  his  sense  of  the  gallant 
conduct  of  Alcaudete  and  his  soldiers  by  the  honors 
and  emoluments  he  bestowed  on  them.  That  nobleman, 
besides  the  grant  of  a  large  annual  revenue,  was  made 
viceroy  of  Navarre.  His  brother,  Don  Martin  de  Cor- 
dova, received  the  encomienda  of  Hornaclros,  with  the 
sum  of  six  thousand  ducats.  Officers  of  inferior  rank 
obtained  the  recompense  due  to  their  merits.  Even  the 
common  soldiers  were  not  forgotten ;  and  the  govern- 
ment, with  politic  liberality,  settled  pensions  on  the 
wives  and  children  of  those  who  had  perished  in  the 
siege. '^ 

17  Ferreras,  Hist.  d'Espagne,  torn.  ix.  p.  442,  et  seq. — Cabreid, 
Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  vi.  cap.  13.— Campana,  Vita  di  Filippo  II.,  torn, 
i.  pp.  137-139. — Herrera,  Hist,  general,  lib.  x.  cap.  4. — The  last  his- 
torian closes  his  account  of  the  siege  of  Mazarquivir  with  the  follow- 
ing not  inelegant  and  certainly  not  parsimonious  tribute  to  the  heroic 
conduct  of  Don  Martin  and  his  followers:  "  Despues  de  noventa  y 
dos  dias  que  sostuvo  este  terrible  cerco,  y  se  embarco  para  Espaiia, 
quedando  para  siempre  glorioso  con  los  soldados.que  con  el  se  halla- 
ron,  ellos  por  aver  side  tan  obedientes,  y  por  las  hazanas  que  hizieron, 
y  el  por  el  valor  y  prudencia  con  que  los  govern6:  por  lo  qual  es 
coniparado  A  qualquicra  de  los  niayores  Capitanes  del  mundo."  His- 
toria  general,  lib.  x.  cap.  4. 


JVAJ?    ON   THE  BARBARY  COAST. 


47 


Philip  now  determined  to  follow  up  his  success;  and, 
instead  of  confining  himself  to  the  defensive,  he  pre- 
pared to  carry  the  war  into  the  enemy's  country.  His 
first  care,  however,  was  to  restore  the  fortifications  of 
Mazarquivir,  which  soon  rose  from  their  ruins  in  greater 
strength  and  solidity  than  before.  He  then  projected 
an  expedition  against  Penon  de  Velez  de  la  Gomera, 
a  place  situated  to  the  west  of  his  own  possessions  on 
the  Barbary  coast.  It  was  a  rocky  island-fortress,  which 
from  the  great  strength  of  'its  defences,  as  well  as  from 
its  natural  position,  was  deemed  impregnable.  It  was 
held  by  a  fierce  corsair,  whose  name  had  long  been 
terrible  in  these  seas.  In  the  summer  of  1564,  the 
king,  with  the  aid  of  his  allies,  got  together  a  powerful 
armament  and  sent  it  at  once  against  Penon  de  Velez. 
This  fortress  did  not  make  the  resistance  to  have  been 
expected;  and,  after  a  siege  of  scarcely  a  week's  dura- 
tion, the  garrison  submitted  to  the  superior  valor — or 
numbers — of  the  Christians.'^ 

This  conquest  was  followed  up,  the  ensuing  year,  by 
an  expedition  under  Don  Alvaro  Bazan,  the  first  mar- 
quis of  Santa  Cruz, — a  name  memorable  in  the  naval 
annals  of  Castile.  The  object  of  the  expedition  was 
to  block  up  the  entrance  to  the  river  Tetuan,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  late  conquest.  The  banks  of  this 
river  had  long  been  the  refuge  of  a  horde  of  pestilent 
marauders,  who,  swarming  out  of  its  mouth,  spread 
over  the  Mediterranean  and  fell  heavily  on  the  com- 
merce of  the  Christians.  Don  Alvaro  accomplished 
his  object  in  the  face  of  a  desperate  enemy,  and,  after 

»8  Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  vi.  cap.  18. — Herrera,  Hist,  general, 
torn.  i.  p.  559,  et  seq. 


348  THE    OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 

some  hard  fighting,  succeeded  in  sinking  nine  brigan- 
tines  laden  with  stones  in  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and 
thus  effectually  obstructed  its  navigation. '' 

These  brilliant  successes  caused  universal  rejoicing 
through  Spain  and  the  neighboring  countries.  They 
were  especially  important  for  the  influence  they  exerted 
on  the  spirits  of  the  Christians,  depressed  as  these  had 
been  by  a  long  series  of  maritime  reverses.  The  Span- 
iards resumed  their  ancient  confidence  as  they  saw  that 
victory  had  once  more  returned  to  their  banner ;  and 
their  ships,  which  had  glided  like  spectres  under  the 
shadow  of  the  coast,  now,  losing  their  apprehensions 
of  the  corsair,  pushed  boldly  out  upon  the  deep.  The 
Moslems,  on  the  other  hand,  as  they  beheld  their  navies 
discomfited  and  one  strong  place  after  another  wrested 
from  their  grasp,  lost  heart,  and  for  a  time,  at  least, 
were  in  no  condition  for  active  enterprise. 

But,  while  the  arms  of  Spain  were  thus  successful  in 
chastising  the  Barbary  corsairs,  rumors  reached  the 
country  of  hostile  preparations  going  forward  in  the 
East,  of  a  more  formidable  character  than  any  on  the 
shores  of  Africa.  The  object  of  these  preparations  was 
not  Spain  itself,  but  Malta.  Yet  this  little  island,  the 
bulwark  of  Christendom,  was  so  intimately  connected 
with  the  fortunes  of  Spain  that  an  account  of  its  mem- 
orable siege  can  hardly  be  deemed  an  episode  in  the 
history  of  Philip  the  Second. 

19  The  afFair  of  the  Rio  de  Tetuan  is  given  at  length  in  the  despatches 
of  Don  Alvaro  Bazan,  dated  at  Ceuta,  March  loth,  1565.  The  corre- 
spondence of  this  commander  is  still  preserved  in  the  family  archives 
of  the  marquis  of  Santa  Cruz,  from  which  the  copies  in  my  possession 
were  take.i. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    KNIGHTS    HOSPITALLERS   OF   ST.  JOHN, 

Masters  of  Rhodes. — Driven  from  Rhodes. — Established  at  Malta. — 
Menaced  by  Solyman. — La  Valette. — His  Preparations  for  Defence, 

1565. 

The  order  of  the  Knights  of  Malta  traces  its  origin 
to  a  remote  period, — to  the  time  of  the  first  crusade,  in 
the  eleventh  century.  A  religious  association  was  then 
formed  in  Palestine,  under  the  title  of  Hospitallers  of 
St,  John  the  Baptist,  the  object  of  which,  as  the  name 
imports,  was  to  minister  to  the  wants  of  the  sick. 
There  was  a  good  harvest  of  these  among  the  poor  pil- 
grims who  wandered  from  all  parts  of  Europe  to  the 
Holy  Land.  It  was  not  long  before  the  society  assumed 
other  duties,  of  a  military  nature,  designed  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  pilgrim  no  less  than  his  relief;  and  the 
new  society,  under  the  name  of  the  Knights  Hospi- 
tallers of  St.  John,  besides  the  usual  monastic  vows, 
pledged  themselves  to  defend  the  Holy  Sepulchre  and 
to  maintain  perpetual  war  against  the  infidel.' 

In  its  new  form,  so  consonant  with  the  spirit  of  the 
age,  the  institution  found  favor  with  the  bold  crusaders, 
and  the  accession  of  members  from  different  parts  of 

»  Helyot,  Hist,  des  Ordres  religieux  et  militaires  (Paris,  1792,  4to) 
torn.  iii.  pp.  74-78. — Vertot,  History  of  the  Knights  of  Malta  ''Eng. 
trans.,  I^ondon,  1728,  fol.),  vol.  ii.  pp.  18-24. 

Philip. — Vol..  II.  30  (349) 


350  THE  KNIGHTS   OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Christendom  greatly  enlarged  its  power  and  political 
consequence.  It  soon  rivalled  the  fraternity  of  the 
Templars,  and,  like  that  body,  became  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal pillars  of  the  throne  of  Jerusalem.  After  the  fall 
of  that  kingdom  and  the  expulsion  of  the  Christians 
from  Palestine,  the  Knights  of  St.  John  remained  a 
short  while  in  Cyprus,  when  they  succeeded  in  con- 
quering Rhodes  from  the  Turks,  and  thus  secured  to 
themselves  a  permanent  residence. 

Placed  in  the  undisputed  sovereignty  of  this  little 
island;  the  Knights  of  Rhodes,  as  they  were  now  usually 
called,  found  themselves  on  a  new  and  independent 
theatre  of  action,  where  they  could  display  all  the  re- 
sources of  their  institutions  and  accomplish  their  glo- 
rious destinies.  Thrown  into  the  midst  of  the  Mussul- 
mans, on  the  borders  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  their 
sword  was  never  in  the  scabbard.  Their  galleys  spread 
over  the  Levant,  and,  whether  alone  or  with  the  Vene- 
tians,— the  rivals  of  the  Turks  in  those  seas, — they 
faithfully  fulfilled  their  vow  of  incessant  war  with  the 
infidel.  Every  week  saw  their  victorious  galleys  return- 
ing to  port  with  the  rich  prizes  taken  from  the  enemy  \ 
and  every  year  the  fraternity  received  fresh  accessions 
of  princes  and  nobles  from  every  part  of  Christendom, 
eager  to  obtain  admission  into  so  illustrious  an  order. 
Many  of  these  were  possessed  of  large  estates,  which, 
on  their  admission,  were  absorbed  in  those  of  the  com- 
munity. Their  manors,  scattered  over  Europe,  far  ex- 
ceeded in  number  those  of  their  rivals,  the  Templars, 
in  their  most  palmy  state."    And  on  the  suppression  of 

»  Boisgelin,  on  the  authority  of  Matthew  Paris,  says  that  in  1224  the 
Knights  of  St.  John  had  19,000  manors  in  different  parts  of  Europe, 


MASTERS    OF  RHODES. 


351 


that  order,  sucli  of  its  vast  possessions  as  were  not 
seized  by  the  rapacious  princes  in  whose  territories  they 
were  lodged  were  suffered  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  the 
Knights  of  St.  John.  The  commanderies  of  the  latter 
— those  conventual  establishments  which  faithfully  re- 
flected the  parent  institution  in  their  discipline — -were 
so  prudently  administered  that  a  large  surplus  from 
their  revenues  was  annually  remitted  to  enrich  the 
treasury  of  the  order. 

The  government  of  this  chivalrous  fraternity,  as  pro- 
vided by  the  statutes  which  formed  its  written  consti- 
tution, was  in  its  nature  aristocratical.  At  the  head 
was  the  grand  master,  elected  by  the  knights  from  their 
own  body,  and,  like  the  doge  of  Venice,  holding  his 
office  for  life,  with  an  authority  scarcely  larger  than 
that  of  this  dignitary.  The  legislative  and  judicial 
functions  were  vested  in  councils,  in  which  the  grand 
master  enjoyed  no  higher  privilege  than  that  of  a  double 
vote.  But  his  patronage  was  extensive,  for  he  had  the 
nomination  to  the  most  important  offices,  both  at  home 
and  abroad.  The  variety  and  high-sounding  titles  of 
these  offices  may  provoke  a  smile  in  the  reader,  who 
might  fancy  himself  occupied  with  the  concerns  of  a 
great  empire,  rather  than  those  of  a  little  brotherhood 
of  monks.  The  grand  master,  indeed,  in  his  manner 
of  living,  affected  the  state  of  a  sovereign  prince.  He 
sent  his  ambassadors  to  the  principal  European  courts; 
and  a  rank  was  conceded  to  him  next  to  that  of  crowned 
heads, — above  that  of  any  ducal  potentate. ^ 

while  the  Templars  had  but   9000.      Ancient   and    Modern   Malta 
(London,  1805,  4to),  vol.  ii.  p.  19. 
3  For  an  account  of  the  institutions  of  the  order  of  St.  John,  see 


352  THE  KNIGHTS    OF  ST.  JOHN. 

He  was  enabled  to  maintain  this  position  by  the 
wealth  which,  from  the  sources  already  enumerated, 
flowed  into  the  exchequer.  Great  sums  were  spent  in 
placing  the  island  in  the  best  state  of  defence,  in  con- 
structing public  works,  palaces  for  the  grand  master, 
and  ample  accommodations  for  the  various  languages, 
— a  technical  term,  denoting  the  classification  of  the 
members  according  to  their  respective  nations;  finally, 
in  the  embellishment  of  the  capital,  which  vied  in  the 
splendor  of  its  architecture  with  the  finest  cities  of 
Christendom. 

Yet,  with  this  show  of  pomp  and  magnificence,  the 
Knights  of  Rhodes  did  not  sink  into  the  enervating 
luxury  which  was  charged  on  the  Templars,  nor  did 
they  engage  in  those  worldly  ambitious  schemes  which 
provoked  the  jealousy  of  princes  and  brought  ruin  on 
that  proud  order.  In  prosperity,  as  in  poverty,  they 
were  still  true  to  the  principles  of  their  institution. 
Their  galleys  still  spread  over  the  Levant,  and  came 
back  victorious  from  their  caravans,  as  their  cruises 
against  the  Moslems  were  termed.  In  every  enterprise 
set  on  foot  by  the  Christian  powers  against  the  enemies 
of  the  Faith,  the  red  banner  of  St.  John,  with  its  eight- 
pointed  cross  of  white,  was  still  to  be  seen  glittering  in 
the  front  of  battle.  There  is  no  example  of  a  military 
institution  having  religion  for  its  object  which,  under 
every  change  of  condition  and  for  so  many  centuries, 
maintained  so  inflexibly  the  purity  of  its  principles  and 
so  conscientiously  devoted  itself  to  the  great  object  for 
which  it  was  created. 

Helyot,  Ordres  religieux,  torn.  ii.  p.  58,  et  seq.;  also  the  Old  and  New 
Statutes,  appended  to  vol.  ii.  of  Vertot's  History  of  the  Kniglits  of 
Malta. 


MASTERS   OF  RHODES. 


353 


It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  a  mighty  power,  like 
that  of  the  Turks,  would  patiently  endure  the  existence 
of  a  petty  enemy  on  its  borders,  which,  if  not  formida- 
ble from  extent  of  population  and  empire,  like  Venice, 
was  even  more  annoying  by  its  incessant  hostilities  and 
its  depredations  on  the  Turkish  commerce.  More  than 
one  sultan,  accordingly,  hoping  to  rid  themselves  of 
the  annoyance,  fitted  out  expeditions  against  the  island, 
with  the  design  of  crushing  the  hornets  in  their  nest. 
But  in  every  attempt  they  were  foiled  by  the  valor  of 
this  little  band  of  Christian  chivalry.  At  length,  in 
1522,  Solyman  the  Second  led  an  expedition  in  person 
against  Rhodes.  For  six  months  the  brave  knights, 
with  their  own  good  swords,  unaided  by  a  single  Eu- 
ropean power,  withstood  the  whole  array  of  the  Otto- 
man Empire ;  and  when  at  length  forced  to  surrender, 
they  obtained  such  honorable  terms  from  Solyman  as 
showed  he  knew  how  to  respect  valor,  though  in  a 
Christian  foe. 

Once  more  without  a  home,  the  Knights  of  St.  John 
were  abroad  on  the  world.  The  European  princes, 
affecting  to  consider  the  order  as  now  extinct,  pre- 
pared to  confiscate  whatever  possessions  it  had  in  their 
several  dominions.  From  this  ruin  it  was  saved  by 
the  exertions  of  L'Isle  Adam,  the  grand  master,  who 
showed,  at  this  crisis,  as  much  skill  in  diplomacy  as  he 
had  before  shown  prowess  in  the  field.  He  visited  the 
principal  courts  in  person,  and  by  his  insinuating  ad- 
dress, as  well  as  arguments,  not  only  turned  the  sov- 
ereigns from  their  purpose,  but  secured  effectual  aid 
for  his  unfortunate  brethren.  The  pope  offered  them 
a  temporary  asylum  in  the  papal  territory;  and  Charles 


354  THE  KNIGHTS   OF  ST.  JOHN. 

the  Fifth  was  induced  to  cede  to  the  order,  the  island 
of  Malta  and  its  dependencies,  with  entire  jurisdiction 
over  them,  for  their  permanent  residence. 

Malta,  which  had  been  annexed  by  Charles's  pre- 
decessors to  Sicily,  had  descended  to  that  monarch  as 
part  of  the  dominions  of  the  crown  of  Aragon.  In 
thus  ceding  it  to  the  Knights  of  St.  John  the  politic 
prince  consulted  his  own  interests  quite  as  much  as 
those  of  the  order.  He  drew  no  revenue  from  the 
rocky  isle,  but,  on  the  contrary,  was  charged  with  its 
defence  against  the  Moorish  corsairs,  who  made  fre- 
quent descents  on  the  spot,  wasting  the  country  and 
dragging  off  the  miserable  people  into  slavery.  By 
this  transfer  of  the  island  to  the  military  order  of  St. 
John  he  not  only  relieved  himself  of  all  further  ex- 
pense on  its  account,  but  secured  a  permanent  bulwark 
for  the  protection  of  his  own  dominions. 

It  was  wise  in  the  emperor  to  consent  that  the  gift 
should  be  burdened  with  no  other  condition  than  the 
annual  payment  of  a  falcon  in  token  of  his  feudal  su- 
premacy. It  .was  also  stipulated  that  the  order  should 
at  no  time  bear  arms  against  Sicily;  a  stipulation 
hardly  necessary  with  men  vrho,  by  their  vows,  were 
pledged  to  fight  in  defence  of  Christendom,  and  not 
against  it."* 

In  October,  1530,  L'Isle  Adam  and  his  brave-  asso- 
ciates took  possession  of  their  new  domain.  Their 
liearts  sank  within  them  as  their  eyes  wandered  over 
the  rocky  expanse,  forming  a  sad  contrast  to  the  beau- 
tiful "land  of  roses"  which  had  so  long  been  their 

4  The  original  deed  of  cession,  in  Latin,  is  published  by  Vertot, 
Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  ii.  p.  157,  at  seq. 


ESTABLISHED  AT  MALTA.  355 

abode. s  But  it  was  not  very  long  before  the  wilder- 
ness before  them  was  to  blossom  like  the  rose,  under 
their  diligent  culture.^  Earth  was  brought  in  large 
quantities,  and  at  great  cost,  from  Sicily.  Terraces  to 
receive  it  were  hewn  in  the  steep  sides  of  the  rock; 
and  the  soil,  quickened  by  the  ardent  sun  of  Malta, 
was  soon  clothed  with  the  glowing  vegetation  of  the 
South.  Still,  it  did  not  raise  the  grain  necessary  for 
the  consumption  of  the  island.  This  was  regularly 
imported  from  Sicily,  and  stored  in  large  pits  or  cav- 
erns, excavated  in  the  rock,  which,  hermetically  closed, 
preserved  their  contents  unimpaired  for  years.  In  a 
short  time,  too,  the  island  bristled  with  fortifications, 
which,  combined  with  its  natural  defences,  enabled  its 
garrison  to  defy  the  attacks  of  the  corsair.  To  these 
works  was  added  the  construction  of  suitable  dwellings 
for  the  accommodation  of  the  order.  But  it  was  long 
after,  and  not  until  the  land  had  been  desolated  by 

5  "  Rhodes,"  from  the  Greek  /ioJov.  The  origin  of  the  name  is  re- 
ferred by  etymologists  to  the  great  quantity  of  roses  which  grew  wild 
on  the  island.  The  name  of  Malta  {Melita)  is  traced  to  the  wild 
honey,  /^>U,  of  most  excellent  flavor,  found  among  its  rocks. 

6  A  recent  traveller,  after  visiting  both  Rhodes  and  Malta,  thus 
alludes  to  the  change  in  the  relative  condition  of  the  two  islands : 
"  We  are  told  that,  when  L'Isle  Adam  and  his  brave  companions  first 
landed  on  this  shore,  their  spii-its  sank  within  them  at  the  contrast  its 
dry  and  J^arren  surface  presented  to  their  delicious  lost  Rhodes ;  I 
have  qualified  myself  for  adjudging  that  in  most  respects  the  tables 
are  now  turned  between  the  two  islands,  and  they  certainly  afford  a 
very  decisive  criterion  of  the  results  of  Turkish  and  Christian  domin- 
ion." The  Earl  of  Carlisle's  Diary  in  Turkish  and  Greek  Waters 
(Boston,  1855),  p.  204; — an  unpretending  volume,  which  bears  on 
every  page  evidence  of  the  wise  and  tolerant  spirit,  the  various  schol- 
arship, and  the  sensibility  to  the  beautiful,  so  characteristic  of  its 
noble  author. 


356  THE  KNIGHTS   OF  ST.  JOHN. 

the  siege  on  which  we  are  now  to  enter,  that  it  was 
crowned  with  the  stately  edifices  that  eclipsed  those 
of  Rhodes  itself,  and  made  Malta  the  pride  of  the 
Mediterranean. 7 

In  their  new  position  the  knights  were  not  very  dif- 
ferently situated  from  what  they  had  been  in  the  Levant. 
They  were  still  encamped  among  the  infidel,  with  the 
watch-fires  of  the  enemy  blazing  around  them.  Again 
their  galleys  sailed  forth  to  battle  with  the  corsairs  and 
returned  laden  with  the  spoils  of  victory.  Still  the 
white  cross  of  St.  John  was  to  be  seen  in  the  post  of 
danger.  In  all  the  expeditions  of  Charles  the  Fifth 
and  Philip  the  Second  against  the  Barbary  Moors,  from 
the  siege  of  Tunis  to  the  capture  of  Penon  de  Velez, 
they  bore  a  prominent  part.  With  the  bravery  of  the 
soldier  they  combined  the  skill  of  the  mariner  \  and  on 
that  disastrous  day  when  the  Christian  navy  was  scat- 
tered before  Algiers,  the  Maltese  galleys  were  among 
the  few  that  rode  out  the  tempest.^     It  was  not  long 

7  For  the  account  of  Malta  I  am  much  indebted  to  Boisgelin,  "  An- 
cient and  Modern  Malta."  This  work  gives  the  most  complete  view 
of  Malta,  both  in  regard  to  the  natural  history  of  the  island  and  the 
military  and  political  history  of  the  order,  that  is  to  be  found  in  any 
book  v^ith  which  I  am  Acquainted.  It  is  a  large  repository  of  facts 
crudely  put  together,  with  little  to  boast  of  on  the  score  of  its  literary 
execution.  It  is  interesting  as  the  production  of  a  Knight  of  St. 
John,  one  of  the  unhappy  few  who  survived  to  witness  the  Jreachery 
of  his  brethren  and  the  extinction  of  his  order.  The  last  of  the  line, 
he  may  well  be  pardoned  if,  in  his  survey  of  the  glorious  past,  he 
should  now  and  then  sound  the  trumpet  of  glorification  somewhat  too 
loudly. 

8  "  The  galleys  of  the  order  alone  resisted  the  fury  of  the  waves ; 
and  when  Charles  the  Fifth  vfcfas  told  that  some  vessels  appeared  still 
to  live  at  sea,  he  exclaimed,  '  They  must  indeed  be  Maltese  galleys 
which  can  outride  such  a  tempest !'     The  high  opinion  he  had  formed 


ESTABLISHED  AT  MALTA. 


357 


before  the  name  of  the  Knights  of  Malta  became  as 
formidable  on  the  southern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean 
as  that  of  the  Knights  of  Rhodes  had  been  in  the 
East. 

Occasionally  their  galleys,  sweeping  by  the  mouth  of 
the  Adriatic,  passed  into  the  Levant  and  boldly  encoun- 
tered their  old  enemy  on  his  own  seas,  even  with  odds 
greatly  against  them.'  The  Moors  of  tlie  Barbary  coast, 
smarting  under  the  losses  inflicted  on  them  by  their 
indefatigable  foe,  more  than  once  besought  the  Sultan 
to  come  to  their  aid  and  avenge  the  insults  offered  to 
his  religion  on  the  heads  of  the  offenders.  At  this 
juncture  occurred  the  capture  of  a  Turkish  galleon  in . 
the  Levant.  It  was  a  huge  vessel,  richly  laden,  and 
defended  by  twenty  guns  and  two  hundred  janizaries. 
After  a  desperate  action,  she  was  taken  by  the  Maltese 
galleys,  and  borne  off,  a  welcome  prize,  to  the  island. 
She  belonged  to  the  chief  eunuch  of  the  imperial  harem, 
some  of  the  fair  inmates  of  which  were  said  to  have  had 
an  interest  in  the  precious  freight. '°  These  persons  now 
joined  with  the  Moors  in  the  demand  for  vengeance. 
Solyman  shared  in  the  general  indignation  at  the  insult 
offered  to  him  under  the  walls,  as  it  were,  of  his  own 

of  this  fleet  was  fully  justified  ;  for  the  standard  of  the  order  was  soon 
in  sight."     Boisgehn,  Ancient  and  Modern  Malta,  vol.  ii.  p.  34. 

9  Ibid.,  p.  61,  at  alibi. 

'°  The  value  of  the  freight  was  estimated  at  more  than  80,000 
ducats:  "  Se  estimo  la  presa  mas  de  ochenta  mil  ducados,  de  sedas 
de  levante,  y  alombras  y  otras  cosas,  cada  uno  piense  lo  que  se  diria 
en  la  corte  del  Turco,  sobre  la  perdida  desta  nave  tan  poderosa,  y  tan 
rica."  La  verdadera  Relacion  de  todo  lo  qiie  el  Ano  de  M.  D. 
LXV.  ha  succedido  en  la  Isla  de  Malta,  por  Francisco  Balbi  de  Cor- 
reggio,  en  todo  el  Sitio  Soldado  (Barcelona,  1568),  fol.  19. 


358  THE  KNIGHTS   OF  ST.    JOHN. 

capital;  and  he  resolved  to  signalize  the  close  of  his 
reign  by  driving  the  knights  from  Malta,  as  he  had  the 
commencement  of  it  by  driving  them  from  Rhodes. 

■  As  it  was  not  improbable  that  the  Christian  princes 
would  rally  in  support  of  an  order  which  had  fought 
so  many  battles  for  Christendom,  Solyman  made  his 
preparations  on  a  formidable  scale.  Rumors  of  these 
spread  far  and  wide ;  and,  as  their  object  was  unknown, 
the  great  powers  on  the  Mediterranean,  each  fancying 
that  its  own  dominions  might  be  the  point  of  attack, 
lost  no  time  in  placing  their  coasts  in  a  state  of  defence. 
The  king  of  Spain  sent  orders  to  his  viceroy  in  Sicily 
to  equip  such  a  fleet  as  would  secure  the  safety  of  that 
island. 

Meanwhile,  the  grand  master  of  Malta,  by  means  of 
spies  whom  he  secretly  employed  in  Constantinople, 
received  intelligence  of  the  real  purpose  of  the  expe- 
dition. The  post  of  grand  master,  at  this  time,  was 
held  by  Jean  Parisot  de  la  Valette,  a  man  whose  extra- 
ordinary character,  no  less  than  the  circumstances  in 
which  he  was  placed,  has  secured  him  an  imperishable 
name  on  the  page  of  history.  He  was  of  an  ancient 
family  from  the  south  of  France,  being  of  the  la?igitage 
of  Provence.  He  was  now  in  the  sixty-eighth  year  of 
his  age."  In  his  youth  he  had  witnessed  the  memorable 
siege  of  Rhodes,  and  had  passed  successively  through 
every  post  in  the  order,  from  the  humblest  to  the  high- 
est, which  he  now  occupied.  With  large  experience  he 
combined  a  singular  discretion,  and  an  inflexible  spirit, 
founded  on  entire  devotion  to  the  great  cause  in  which 
he  was  engaged.      It  was  the  conviction  of  this  self- 

"  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  17. 


PREPARATIONS  FOR  DEFENCE. 


359 


devotion  which,  in  part  at  least,  may  have  given  La 
Valette  that  ascendency  over  the  minds  of  his  brethren 
which  was  so  important  at  a  crisis  like  the  present.  It 
may  have  been  the  anticipation  of  such  a  crisis  that  led 
to  his  election  as  grand  master  in  1557,  when  the  dark- 
ness coming  over  the  waters  showed  the  necessity  of 
an  experienced  pilot  to  weather  the  storm. 

No  sooner  had  the  grand  master  learned  the  true 
destination  of  the  Turkish  armament  than  he  sent  his 
emissaries  to  the  different  Christian  powers,  soliciting 
aid  for  the  order  in  its  extremity.  He  summoned  the 
knights  absent  in  foreign  lands  to  return  to  Malta  and 
take  part  with  their  brethren  in  the  coming  struggle. 
He  imported  large  supplies  of  provisions  and  military 
stores  from  Sicily  and  Spain.  He  drilled  the  militia 
of  the  island,  and  formed  an  effective  body  of  more 
than  three  thousand  men ;  to  which  was  added  a  still 
greater  number  of  Spanish  and  Italian  troops,  raised 
for  him  by  the  knights  who  were  abroad.  This  force 
was  augmented  by  the  extraordinary  addition  of  five 
hundred  galley-slaves  whom  La  Valette  withdrew  from 
the  oar,  promising  to  give  them  their  fi-eedom  if  they 
served  him  faithfully.  Lastly,  the  fortifications  were 
put  in  repair,  strengthened  with  outworks,  and  placed 
in  the  best  condition  for  resisting  the  enemy.  All 
classes  of  the  inhabitants  joined  in  this  work.  The 
knights  themselves  took  their  part  in  the  toilsome 
drudgery ;  and  the  grand  master  did  not  disdain  to 
labor  with  the  humblest  of  his  followers.  He  not  only 
directed,  but,  as  hands  were  wanted,  he  set  the  example 
of  carrying  his  own  orders  into  execution.  Wherever 
his  presence  was  needed,  he  was  to  be  found, — minis- 


360  THE  KNIGHTS   OF  ST.  JOHN. 

taring  to  the  sick,  cheering  the  desponding,  stimulating 
the  indifferent,  chiding  the  dilatory,  watching  over  the 
interests  of  the  little  community  intrusted  to  his  care 
with  parental  solicitude. 

While  thus  employed.  La  Valette  received  a  visit 
from  the  Sicilian  viceroy,  Don  Garcia  de  Toledo,  the 
conqueror  of  Pefion  de  Velez.  He  came,  by  Philip's 
orders,  to  concert  with  the  grand  master  the  best  means 
of  defence.  He  assured  the  latter  that  so  soon  as  he 
had  assembled  a  fleet  he  would  come  to  his  relief;  and 
he  left  his  natural  son  with  him,  to  learn  the  art  of  war 
under  so  experienced  a  commander.  La  Valette  was 
comforted  by  the  viceroy's  promises  of  succor.  But 
he  well  knew  that  it  was  not  to  the  promises  of  others 
he  was  to  trust,  in  his  present  exigency,  but  to  his  own 
efforts  and  those  of  his  brave  companions. 

The  knights,  in  obedience  to  his  call,  had  for  the  most 
part  now  arrived,  each  bringing  with  him  a  number  of 
servants  and  other  followers.  Some  few  of  the  more 
aged  and  infirm  remained  behind ;  but  this  not  so  much 
from  infirmity  and  age  as  from  the  importance  of  having 
some  of  its  members  to  watch  over  the  interests  of  the 
community  at  foreign  courts.  La  Valette  was  touched 
by  the  alacrity  with  which  his  brethren  repaired  to  their 
posts,  to  stand  by  their  order  in  the  dark  hour  of  its 
fortunes.  He  tenderly  embraced  them ;  and  soon  after- 
wards, calling  them  together,  he  discoursed  with  them 
on  the  perilous  position  in  which  they  stood,  with  the 
whole  strength  of  the  Moorish  and  Turkish  empires 
mustering  against  them.  "It  was  the  great  battle  of 
the  Cross  and  the  Koran,"  he  said,  "  that  was  now  to 
be  fought.    They  were  the  chosen  soldiers  of  the  Cross; 


PREPARATIONS  FOR  DEFENCE. 


361 


and,  if  Heaven  required  the  sacrifice  of  their  lives,  there 
could  be  no  better  time  than  this  glorious  occasion." 
The  grand  master  then  led  the  way  to  the  chapel  of  the 
convent,  where  he  and  his  brethren,  after  devoutly  con- 
fessing, partook  of  the  sacrament,  and,  at  the  foot  of 
the  altar,  solemnly  renewed  their  vows  to  defend  the 
Church  against  the  infidel.  With  minds  exalted  by 
these  spiritual  exercises,  all  worldly  interests  seemed 
from  that  moment,  says  their  historian,  to  lose  their 
hold  on  their  affections.  They  stood  like  a  company 
of  martyrs, — the  forlorn  hope  of  Christendom,  pre- 
pared, as  their  chief  had  said,  to  offer  up  their  lives  a 
sacrifice  to  the  great  cause  in  which  they  were  engaged. 
Such  were  the  feelings  with  which  La  Valette  and  his 
companions,  having  completed  their  preparations,  now 
calmly  awaited  the  coming  of  the  enemy." 

"  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  ii.  pp.  192-195. — Sagredo,  Mo- 
narcas  Othomanos,  p.  244. — Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  26,  et 
seq. — Boisgelin,  Ancient  and  Modern  Malta,  vol.  ii.  pp.  71-73. — De 
Thou,  Hist,  universelle,  torn.  v.  pp.  51-53. — J.  M.  Calderon  de  la 
Barca,  Gloriosa  Defensa  de  Malta  (Madrid,  1796),  p.  28. 


Philip, — Vol.  II.— Q  31 


CHAPTER    III. 


SIEGE    OF   MALTA. 


Condition  of  Malta. — Arrival  of  the  Turks. — They  reconnoitre  the 
Island. — Siege  of  St,  Elmo. — Its  Heroic  Defence. — Its  Fall. 

1565. 

Before  entering  on  the  particulars  of  this  memorable 
siege,  it  will  be  necessary  to  make  the  reader  somewhat 
acquainted  with  the  country  which  was  the  scene  of 
operations.  The  island  of  Malta  is  about  seventeen 
miles  long  and  nine  broad.  At  the  time  of  the  siege 
it  contained  some  twelve  thousand  inhabitants,  exclusive 
of  the  members  of  the  order.  They  were  gathered,  for 
the  most  part,  into  wretched  towns  and  villages,  the 
principal  one  of  which  was  defended  by  a  wall  of  some 
strength  and  was  dignified  with  the  title  of  Civita  No- 
table,— "Illustrious  City."  As  it  was  situated  in  the 
interior,  near  the  centre  of  the  island,  the  knights  did 
not  take  up  their  residence  there,  but  preferred  the 
northeastern  part  of  Malta,  looking  towards  Sicily  and 
affording  a  commodious  harbor  for  their  galleys. 

The  formation  of  the  land  in  this  quarter  is  very 
remarkable.  A  narrow,  rocky  promontory  stretches  out 
into  the  Mediterranean,  dividing  its  waters  into  two 
small  gulfs, — that  on  the  west  being  called  Marza  Mu- 
siette,  or  Port  Musiette,  and  tliat  towards  the  east,  which 
now  bears  the  name  of  Valetta  harbor,  being  then  known 
(362) 


CONDITION  OF  THE   ISLAND.  3C3 

as  the  Great  Port.  The  extreme  point  of  the  promon- 
tory was  crowned  by  the  castle  of  St.  Ehiio,  built  by 
the  order,  soon  after  its  arrival  in  the  island,  on  the 
spot  which  commanded  the  entrance  into  both  harbors. 
It  was  a  fortress  of  considerable  strength,  for  which  it 
was  chiefly  indebted  to  its  position.  Planted  on  the 
solid  rock,  and  washed,  for  the  greater  part  of  its  cir- 
cuit, by  the  waters  of  the  Mediterranean,  it  needed  no 
other  defence  on  that  quarter.  But  towards  the  land  it 
was  more  open  to  an  enemy;  and,  though  protected  by 
a  dry  ditch  and  a  counterscarp,  it  was  thought  necessary 
to  secure  it  still  further  by  means  of  a  ravelin  on  the 
southwest,  which  La  Valette  had  scarcely  completed 
before  the  arrival  of  the  Turks. 

Port  Musiette,  on  the  west,  is  that  in  which  vessels 
now  perform  quarantine.  The  Great  Port  was  the 
most  important ;  for  round  that  was  gathered  the  little 
community  of  knights.  Its  entrance,  which  is  not 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  width,  is  commanded 
by  two  headlands,  one  of  them  crested,  as  above  men- 
tioned, by  the  fort  of  St.  Elmo.  The  length  of  the 
harbor  may  be  nearly  two  miles ;  and  the  water  is  of 
sufficient  depth  for  ships  of  the  greatest  burden  to  ride 
there  in  security,  sheltered  within  the  encircling  arms 
of  the  coast  from  the  storms  of  the  Mediterranean. 

From  the  eastern  side  of  this  basin  shoot  out  two 
projecting  headlands,  forming  smaller  harbors  within 
the  Great  Port.  The  most  northerly  of  these  strips  of 
land  was  defended  by  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo,  round 
which  clustered  a  little  town,  called  by  way  of  emi- 
nence //  Borgo,  "The  Burgh," — now  more  proudly 
styled  "The  Victorious  City."     It  was  here  that  the 


364  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

order  took  up  its  residence, — the  grand  masters  estab- 
lishing themselves  in  the  castle ;  and  great  pains  were 
taken  to  put  the  latter  in  a  good  state  of  defence, 
while  the  town  was  protected  by  a  wall.  On  the  par- 
allel strip  of  land,  known  as  the  island  of  La  Sangle, 
from  a  grand  master  of  that  name,  stood  a  fort,  called 
the  fort  of  St.  Michael,  with  a  straggling  population 
gathered  around  it,  now  busily  employed  in  strength- 
ening the  defences.  Between  the  two  headlands  lay 
the  Port  of  Galleys,  serving,  as  its  name  imports,  as  a 
haven  for  the  little  navy  of  the  order.  This  port  was 
made  more  secure  by  an  iron  chain  drawn  across  its 
entrance,  from  the  extreme  point  of  one  headland  to 
the  other. 

Such  were  the  works  constructed  by  the  knights  in 
the  brief  period  during  wliich  they  had  occupied  the 
island.  They  were  so  far  imperfect  that  many  a  com- 
manding eminence,  which  the  security  of  the  country 
required  to  be  strongly  fortified,  still  remained  as 
naked  and  exposed  as  at  the  time  of  their  arrival. 
This  imperfect  state  of  its  defences  presented  a  strong 
contrast  to  the  present  condition  of  Malta,  bristling  all 
over  with  fortifications,  which  seem  to  form  part  of  the 
living  rock  out  of  which  they  spring,  and  which,  in  the 
hands  of  a  power  that  holds  possession  of  the  sea,  might 
bid  defiance  to  the  world. 

The  whole  force  which  La  Valette  could  muster  in 
defence  of  the  island  amounted  to  about  nine  thousand 
men.  This  included  seven  hundred  knights,  of  whom 
about  six  hundred  had  already  arrived.  The  remainder 
were  on  their  way,  and  joined  him  at  a  later  period  of 
the   siege.      Between  three   and   four  thousand  were 


CONDITION  OF  THE   ISLAND.  365 

Maltese,  irregularly  trained,  but  who  had  already 
gained  some  experience  of  war  in  their  contests  with 
the  Barbary  corsairs.  The  rest  of  the  army,  with  the 
exception  of  five  hundred  galley-slaves,  already  no- 
ticed, and  the  personal  followers  of  the  knights,  was 
made  up  of  levies  from  Spain  and  Italy,  who  had 
come  over  to  aid  in  the  defence.  The  useless  part 
of  the  population — the  infirm  and  the  aged — had  for 
the  most  part  been  shipped  off  to  Sicily.  There  still 
remained,  however,  numbers  of  women  and  children ; 
and  the  former,  displaying  the  heroic  constancy  which 
in  times  of  trouble  so  often  distinguishes  the  sex,  did 
good  service  during  the  siege,  by  tending  the  sick  and 
by  cheering  the  flagging  spirits  of  the  soldier.' 

This  little  army  La  Valette  distributed  on  the  several 
stations,  assigning  each  to  some  one  of  the  languages, 
or  nations,  that  the  spirit  of  emulation  might  work  its 
effects  on  the  chivalry  of  the  order.  The  castle  of  St. 
Elmo  was  the  point  of  first  importance.  It  covered  so 
contracted  a  piece  of  ground  that  it  scarcely  afforded 
accommodation  for  a  thousand  men ;  and  not  more 
than  eight  hundred  were  shut  up  within  its  walls  at  the 
commencement  of  the  siege.'  Its  dimensions  did  not 
admit  of  its  being  provided  with  magazines  capable  of 

»  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  ii.  p.  197. — Balbi,  Verdadera  Re- 
lacion,  fol.  28. — The  latter  chronicler,  who  gives  a  catalogue  of  the 
forces,  makes  the  total  amount  of  fighting-men  not  exceed  six  thou- 
sand one  hundred.  He  speaks,  however,  of  an  indefinite  number 
besides  these,  including  a  thousand  slaves,  who  in  various  ways  con- 
tributed to  the  defence  of  the  island. 

»  "  De  modo  que  quado  los  turcos  llegaron  sobre  sant  Ermo,  hauia 
ochocientos  hombres  dentro  para  pelear."  Balbi,  Verdadera  Rela- 
cion,  fol.  37. 

31* 


366  SIEGE   OF  MALTA. 

holding  any  large  quantity  of  provisions  or  military 
stores,  for  which  it  was  unfortunately  obliged  to  rely 
on  its  communication  with  II  Borgo,  the  town  across 
the  harbor.  The  masonry  of  the  fort  was  not  in  the 
best  repute ;  though  the  works  were  lined  with  at  least 
thirty  pieces  of  artillery,  looking  chiefly  towards  the 
land.  Its  garrison,  which  usually  amounted  to  sixty 
soldiers,  was  under  the  command  of  an  aged  knight, 
named  De  Broglio.  The  grand  master  reinforced  this 
body  with  sixty  knights  under  the  bailiff  of  Negropont, 
a  veteran  in  whose  well-tried  valor  La  Valette  placed 
entire  confidence.  He  was  strengthened  by  two  com- 
panies of  foreign  levies,  under  the  command  of  a 
Spanish  cavalier  named  La  Cerda.^ 

Various  other  points  were  held  by  small  detach- 
ments, with  some  one  of  the  order  at  the  head  of 
each.  But  the  strength  of  the  force,  including  nearly 
all  the  remainder  of  the  knights,  was  posted  in  the 
castle  of  St.  Angelo  a^jd  in  the  town  at  its  base.  Here 
La  Valette  took  his  own  station,  as  the  spot  which  by 
its  central  position  would  enable  him  to  watch  over 
the  interests  of  the  whole.  All  was  bustle  in  this 
quarter,  as  the  people  were  busily  employed  in  strength- 
ening the  defences  of  the  town,  and  in  razing  buildings 
in  the  suburbs,  which  the  grand  master  feared  might 
afford  a  lodgment  to  the  enemy.  In  this  work  their 
labors  were  aided  by  a  thousand  slaves,  taken  from  the 
prison,  and  chained  together  in  couples. "• 

3  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  31. — Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol. 
ii.  p.  198. 

4  "  En  este  tiempo  ya  todos  los  esclauos  assi  de  sant  Juan  como  de 
particulares  estauan  en  la  carcel,  que  seria  Lien  mil  esclatios.    Y 


ARRIVAL    OF  THE    TURKS. 


z^n 


On  the  morning  of  the  eighteenth  of  May,  1565,  the 
Turkish  fleet  was  descried  by  the  sentinels  of  St.  Ehno 
and  St.  Angelo,  about  thirty  miles  to  the  eastward, 
standing  directly  for  Malta.  A  gun,  the  signal  agreed 
on,  was  fired  from  each  of  the  forts,  to  warn  the  in- 
habitants of  the  country  to  withdraw  into  their  vil- 
lages. The  fleet  amounted  to  one  hundred  and  thirty 
royal  galleys,  with  fifty  of  lesser  size,  besides  a  number 
of  transports  with  the  cannon,  ammunition,  and  other 
military  stores.^  The  breaching-artillery  consisted  of 
sixty-three  guns,  the  smallest  of  which  threw  a  ball  of 
fifty-six  pounds,  and  some  fcAV,  termed  basilicas,  carried 
marble  bullets  of  a  hundred  and  twelve  pounds'  weight.* 
The  Turks  were  celebrated  for  the  enormous  calibre  of 
their  guns,  from  a  very  early  period ;  and  they  con- 
tinued to  employ  those  pieces  long  after  they  had  given 
way,  in  the  rest  of  Europe,  to  cannon  of  more  moder- 
ate and  manageable  dimensions. 

The  number  of  soldiers  on  board,  independently  of 
the  mariners,  and  including  six  thousand  janizaries, 
was  about  thirty  thousand, — the  flower  of  the  Ottoman 
army.'     Their  appointments  were  on  the  most  perfect 

quando  los  sacauan  a  trabajar  a  las  postas  adonde  se  trabajaua,  los 
sacauan  de  dos  en  dos,  asidos  de  vna  cadena."  Balbi,  Verdadera 
Relacion,  fol.  37. 

5  Ibid.,  fol.  23. 

6  Ibid.,  fol.  21. — Vertot  says,  of  a  hundred  and  sixty  pounds' 
weight  (Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  ii.  p.  202).  Yet  even  this  was  far  sur- 
passed by  the  mammoth  cannon  employed  by  Mahomet  at  the  siege 
of  Constantinople,  in  the  preceding  century,  which,  according  to 
Gibbon,  threw  stone  bullets  of  si,x  hundred  pounds. 

7  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  26. — The  old  soldier  goes  into  the 
composition  of  the  Turkish  force,  in  the  general  estimate  of  which  he 
does  not  differ  widely  from  Vertot. 


368  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

scale,  and  every  thing  was  provided  requisite  for  the 
prosecution  of  the  siege.  Never,  probably,  had  there 
been  seen  so  magnificent  an  armament  in  the  waters 
of  the  ]\Iediterranean.  It  was  evident  that  Solyman 
was  bent  on  the  extermination  of  the  order  which  he 
had  once  driven  into  exile,  but  which  had  now  renewed 
its  strength  and  become  the  most  formidable  enemy  of 
the  Crescent. 

The  command  of  the  expedition  was  intrusted  to  two 
officers.  One  of  these,  Piali,  was  the  same  admiral  who 
defeated  the  Spaniards  at  Gelves.  He  had  the  direction 
of  the  naval  operations.  The  land-forces  were  given  to 
Mustapha,  a  veteran  nearly  seventy  years  of  age,  whose 
great  experience,  combined  with  military  talents  of  a 
high  order,  had  raised  him  to  the  head  of  his  profession. 
Unfortunately,  his  merits  as  an  officer  were  tarnished 
by  his  cruelty.  Besides  the  command  of  the  army,  he 
had  a  general  authority  over  the  whole  expedition,  which 
excited  the  jealousy  of  Piali,  who  thought  himself  in- 
jured by  the  preference  given  to  his  rival.  Thus  feelings 
of  mutual  distrust  arose  in  the  bosoms  of  the  two  chiefs, 
which  to  some  extent  paralyzed  the  operations  of  each. 

The  Turkish  armada  steered  for  the  southeastern 
quarter  of  the  island,  and  cast  anchor  in  the  port  of 
St.  Thomas.  The  troops  speedily  disembarked,  and 
spread  themselves  in  detached  bodies  over  the  land, 
devastating  the  country,  and  falling  on  all  stragglers 
whom  they  met  in  the  fields.  Mustapha,  with  the  main 
body  of  the  army,  marching  a  short  distance  into  the 
interior,  occupied  a  rising  ground  only  a  few  miles  from 
II  Borgo.  It  was  with  difficulty  that  the  inhabitants 
could  be  prevented  from  issuing  from  the  gates,  in  order 


OPERATIONS  AGAINST  ST.  ELMO. 


1^9 


to  gaze  on  the  show  presented  by  the  invaders,  whose 
magnificent  array  stretched  far  beyond  the  hills,  with 
their  bright  arms  and  banners  glittering  in  the  sun, 
and  their  warlike  music  breathing  forth  notes  of  defiance 
to  the  Christians.  La  Valette,  in  his  turn,  caused  the 
standard  of  St.  John  to  be  unfurled  from  the  ramparts 
of  the  castle,  and  his  trumpets  to  answer  in  a  similar 
strain  of  defiance  to  that  of  the  enemy. ^ 

Meanwhile,  the  grand  marshal,  Coppier,  had  sallied 
from  the  town  at  the  head  of  a  small  troop  and  fallen 
upon  some  of  the  detachments  which  were  scouring  the 
country.  The  success  of  his  arms  was  shown  by  the 
gory  heads  of  the  slaughtered  Turks,  which  he  sent 
back  to  II  Borgo  as  the  trophies  of  victory.^  La  Va- 
lette's  design  in  permitting  these  encounters  was  to 
familiarize  his  men  with  the  novel  aspect  and  peculiar 
weapons  of  their  enemies,  as  well  as  the  fierce  war-cries 
which  the  Turks  raised  in  battle.  But  the  advantages 
gained  in  these  skirmishes  did  not  compensate  the 
losses,  however  light,  on  the  part  of  the  Christians ; 
and  after  two  knights  and  a  number  of  the  common  file 
had  been  slain,  the  grand  master  ordered  his  followers 
to  remain  quietly  within  the  walls  of  the  town. 

It  was  decided,  in  the  Turkish  council  of  war,  to 
begin  operations  with  the  siege  of  the  castle  of  St. 
Elmo,  as  the  possession  of  this  place  was  necessary  to 
secure  a  safe  harbor  for  the  Turkish  fleet.  On  the 
twenty-fourth  of  May  the  trenches  were  opened, — if 
that  can  be  said  where,  from  the  rocky,  impenetrable 
nature  of  the  ground,  no  trenches  could  be  dug,  and 

8  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  34. 

9  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


370 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


the  besiegers  were  obliged  to  shelter  themselves  behind 
a  breastwork  formed  of  planks,  having  the  space  be- 
tween them  filled  with  earth  brought  from  a  distance, 
and  held  together  by  straw  and  rushes.  At  certain 
intervals  Mustapha  indicated  the  points  for  batteries. 
The  principal  of  these  was  a  battery  where  ten  guns 
were  mounted,  some  of  them  of  the  largest  calibre; 
and  although  artillery-practice  was  very  different  from 
what  it  is  in  our  times,  with  so  much  greater  experience 
and  more  manageable  engines,  yet  masonry  stronger 
than  that  of  St.  Elmo  might  well  have  crumbled  under 
the  masses  of  stone  and  iron  that  were  now  hurled 
against  it. 

As  the  works  began  to  give  way,  it  seemed  clear  that 
the  garrison  must  rely  more  on  their  own  strength  than 
on  that  of  their  defences.  It  was  resolved,  therefore, 
to  send  to  the  grand  master  and  request  reinforcements. 
The  Chevalier  de  la  Cerda  was  intrusted  with  the  mis- 
sion. Crossing  over  to  II  Borgo,  he  presented  himself 
before  La  Valette  and  insisted  on  the  necessity  of  further 
support  if  the  fort  was  to  be  maintained  against  the 
infidel.  The  grand  master  listened,  with  a  displeasure 
which  he  could  not  conceal,  to  this  application  for  aid 
so  early  in  the  siege,  especially  as  it  was  made  in  the 
presence  of  many  of  the  knights,  who  might  well  be 
disheartened  by  it.  He  coldly  asked  La  Cerda  what 
loss  the  garrison  had  suffered.  The  knight,  evading 
the  question,  replied  that  St.  Elmo  was  in  the  condition 
of  a  sick  man  who  requires  the  aid  of  the  physician. 
"I  will  be  the  physician,"  said  La  Valette,  "and  will 
bring  such  aid  that,  if  I  cannot  cure  your  fears,  I  may 
at  least  hope  to  save  the  place  from  falling  into  the 


OPERATIONS  AGAINST  ST.  ELMO. 


sn 


hands  of  the  enemy."  So  impressed  was  he  with  the 
importance  of  maintaining  this  post  to  the  last  extremity, 
if  it  were  only  to  gain  time  for  the  Sicilian  succors,  that 
he  was  prepared,  as  he  said,  to  throw  himself  into  the 
fortress,  and,  if  need  were,  to  bury  himself  in  its  ruins. 
From  this  desperate  resolution  he  was  dissuaded  by 
the  unanimous  voice  of  the  knights,  who  represented  to 
him  that  it  was  not  the  duty  of  the  commander-in-chief 
to  expose  himself  like  a  common  soldier  and  take  his 
place  in  the  forlorn  hope.  The  grand  m.aster  saw  the 
justice  of  these  remonstrances ;  and,  as  the  knights 
contended  with  one  another  for  the  honor  of  assuming 
the  post  of  danger,  he  allowed  fifty  of  the  order,  to- 
gether with  two  companies  of  soldiers,  to  return  with 
La  Cerda  to  the  fort.  The  reinforcement  was  placed 
under  command  of  the  Chevalier  de  Medrano,  a  gallant 
soldier,  on  whose  constancy  and  courage  La  Valette 
knew  he  could  rely.  Before  his  departure,  the  strength 
of  the  force  was  increased  by  the  arrival  of  several 
knights  from  Sicily,  who  obtained  the  grand  master's 
leave  to  share  the  fortunes  of  their  brethren  in  St. 
Elmo.  The  troops  were  sent  across  the  harbor,  together 
with  supplies  of  food  and  ammunition,  in  open  boats, 
under  cover  of  a  heavy  fire  from  the  guns  of  St.  Angelo. 
A  shot  happened  to  fall  on  a  stone  near  the  trenches,  in 
which  Piali,  the  Turkish  admiral,  was  standing ;  and, 
a  splinter  striking  him  on  the  head,  he  was  severely, 
though  not  mortally,  wounded.  La  Valette  took  ad 
vantage  of  the  confusion  created  by  this  incident  to 
despatch  a  galley  to  Sicily,  to  quicken  the  operations 
of  the  viceroy  and  obtain  from  him  the  promised  suc- 
cors.    To  this  Don  Garcia  de  Toledo  replied  by  an 


372 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


assurance  that  he  should  come  to  his  relief  by  the 
middle  of  June." 

It  was  now  the  beginning  of  that  month.  Scarcely 
had  Medrano  entered  St.  Elmo  when  he  headed  a  sally 
against  the  Turks,  slew  many  in  the  trenches,  and  put 
the  remainder  to  flight.  But  they  soon  returned  in 
such  overwhelming  force  as  compelled  the  Christians 
to  retreat  and  take  refuge  within  their  works.  Unfor- 
tunately, the  smoke  of  the  musketry,  borne  along  by  a 
southerly  breeze,  drifted  in  the  direction  of  the  castle ; 
and  under  cover  of  it  the  Turks  succeeded  in  getting 
possession  of  the  counterscarp.  As  the  smoke  cleared 
away,  the  garrison  were  greatly  dismayed  at  seeing  the 
Moslem  standard  planted  on  their  own  defences.  It 
was  in  vain  they  made  every  effort  to  recover  them. 
The  assailants,  speedily  intrenching  themselves  behind 
a  parapet  formed  of  gabions,  fascines,  and  wool-sacks, 
established  a  permanent  lodgment  on  the  counterscarp. 

From  this  point  they  kept  up  a  lively  discharge  of 
musketry  on  the  ravelin,  killing  such  of  its  defenders 
as  ventured  to  show  themselves.  An  untoward  event 
soon  put  them  in  possession  of  the  ravelin  itself.  A 
Turkish  engineer,  reconnoitring  that  outwork  from  the 
counterscarp,  is  said  to  have  perceived  a  sentinel  asleep 
on  his  post.  He  gave  notice  to  his  countrymen ;  and 
a  party  of  janizaries  succeeded,  by  means  of  their  lad- 
ders, in  scaling  the  walls  of  the  ravelin.  The  guard, 
though  few  in  number  and  taken  by  surprise,  still  en- 
deavored to  maintain  the  place.      A  sharp  skirmish 

>o  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  37,  et  seq. — Vertot,  Knights  of 
Malta,  vol.  ii.  pp.  200-202. — Calderon,  Gloriosa  Defensa  de  Malta, 
p.  42. — Cabrera,  Filipe  Scgundo,  lib.  vi.  cap.  24. 


HEROIC  DEFENCE    OF  ST.  ELMO.  -^-^^t 

ensued.  But  the  Turks,  speedily  reinforced  by  their 
comrades,  who  flocked  to  their  support,  overpowered 
the  Christians  and  forced  them  to  give  way.  Some 
few  succeeded  in  effecting  their  retreat  into  the  castle. 
The  janizaries  followed  close  on  the  fugitives.  For  a 
moment  it  seemed  as  if  Moslem  and  Christian  would 
both  be  hurried  along  by  the  tide  of  battle  into  the 
fort  itself.  But  fortunately  the  bailiff  of  Negropont, 
Medrano,  and  some  other  cavaliers,  heading  their  fol- 
lowers, threw  themselves  on  the  enemy  and  checked 
the  pursuit.  A  desperate  struggle  ensued,  in  which 
science  was  of  no  avail,  and  victory  waited  on  the 
strongest.  In  the  end  the  janizaries  were  forced  to 
retreat  in  their  turn.  Every  inch  of  ground  was  con- 
tested ;  until  the  Turks,  pressed  hard  by  their  adver- 
saries, fell  back  into  the  ravelin,  where,  with  the  aid 
of  their  comrades,  they  made  a  resolute  stand  against 
the  Christians.  Two  cannon  of  the  fortress  were  now 
brought  to  bear  on  the  outwork.  But,  though  their 
volleys  told  with  murderous  effect,  the  Turks  threw 
themselves  into  the  midst  of  the  fire,  and  fearlessly 
toiled,  until,  by  means  of  gabions,  sand-bags,  and  other 
materials,  they  had  built  up  a  parapet  which  secured 
them  from  annoyance.  All  further  contest  was  ren- 
dered useless ;  and  the  knights,  abandoning  this  im- 
portant outwork  to  the  assailants,  sullenly  withdrew 
into  the  fortress." 

''  In  Vertot's  account  of  this  affair,  much  is  said  of  a  nondescript 
outwork,  termed  a  cavalier, — conveying  a  different  idea  from  what  is 
understood  by  that  word  in  modern  fortifications.  It  stood  without 
the  walls,  and  was  connected  with  the  ravehn  by  a  bridge,  the  posses- 
sion of  which  was  hotly  contested  by  the  combatants.  Balbi,  tlie 
Spanish  soldier,  so  often  quoted, — one  of  the  actors  in  the  siege, 
rhilip.— Vol.  II.  32 


37-4 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


While  this  was  going  on,  a  fresh  body  of  Turks, 
bursting  into  the  ditch  through  a  breach  in  the  counter- 
scarp, endeavored  to  carry  the  fortress  by  escalade. 
Fortunately,  their  ladders  were  too  short ;  and  the  gar- 
rison, plying  them  with  volleys  of  musketry,  poured 
down  at  the  same  time  such  a  torrent  of  missiles  on 
their  heads  as  soon  strewed  the  ditch  with  mangled 
limbs  and  carcasses.  At  this  moment  a  party,  sallying 
from  the  fort,  fell  on  the  enemy  with  great  slaughter, 
and  drove  them — such  as  were  in  condition  to  fly — 
back  into  their  trenches. 

The  engagement,  brought  on,  as  we  have  seen,  by 
accident,  lasted  several  hours.  The  loss  of  the  Turks 
greatly  exceeded  that  of  the  garrison,  which  amounted 
to  less  than  a  hundred  men,  twenty  of  whom  were 
members  of  the  order.  But  the  greatest  loss  of  the 
besieged  was  that  of  the  counterscarp  and  ravelin. 
Thus  shorn  of  its  outworks,  the  castle  of  St.  Elmo 
stood  like  some  bare  and  solitary  trunk  exposed  to  all 
the  fury  of  the  tempest." 

The  loss  of  the  ravelin  gave  the  deepest  concern  to 
La  Valette,  which  was  not  mitigated  by  the  considera- 
tion that  it  was  to  be  charged,  in  part  at  least,  on  the 
negligence  of  its  defenders.  It  made  him  the  more 
solicitous  to  provide  for  the  security  of  the  castle ;  and 
he  sent  his  boats  over  to  remove  the  wounded  and  re- 

though  stationed  at  the  fort  of  St.  Michael, — speaks  of  the  fight  as 
being  carried  on  in  the  ditch.  His  account  has  the  merit  of  being  at 
once  the  briefest  and  the  most  intelligible. 

"  Ball)i,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  40,  41. — Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  203-205. — Calderon,  Gloriosa  Defensa  de  Malta,  p.  48,  at 
seq. — Sagredo,  Monarcas  Othomanos,  p.  245. — Cabrera,  Filipe  Se- 
gundo,  lib.  vi.  cap.  24. — Herrera,  Historia  general,  lib.  xii.  cap.  4. 


HEROIC  DEFENCE    OF  ST.  ELMO. 


375 


place  them  by  an  equal  number  of  able-bodied  knights 
and  soldiers.  It  was  his  intention  that  the  garrison 
should  not  be  encumbered  with  any  who  were  unable 
to  assist  in  the  defence.  Among  the  new  recruits  was 
the  Chevalier  de  Miranda, — one  of  the  most  illustrious 
members  of  the  order,  who  had  lately  arrived  from 
Sicily, — a  soldier  whose  personal  authority,  combined 
with  great  military  knowledge,  proved  eminently  useful 
to  the  garrison. 

The  loss  which  the  besiegers  had  sustained  in  the 
late  encounter  was  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the 
arrival,  at  this  time,  of  Dragut,  the  famous  pasha  of 
Tripoli,  with  thirteen  Moorish  galleys.  He  was  wel- 
comed by  salvos  of  artillery  and  the  general  rejoicing  of 
the  army ;  and  this  not  so  much  on  account  of  the  re- 
inforcement which  he  brought — the  want  of  which  was 
not  then  felt — as  of  his  reputation  ;  for  he  was  no  less 
celebrated  as  an  engineer  than  as  a  naval  commander. 
The  sultan,  who  had  the  highest  opinion  of  his  merits, 
had  ordered  his  generals  to  show  him  the  greatest  defer- 
ence ;  and  they  at  once  advised  with  him  as  to  the  best 
means  of  prosecuting  the  siege.  The  effect  of  his 
counsel  was  soon  seen  in  the  more  judicious  and  effi- 
cient measures  that  were  adopted.  A  battery  of  four 
culverins  was  established  on  the  western  headland  com- 
manding the  entrance  of  Port  Musiette.  It  was  de- 
signed to  operate  on  the  western  flank  of  the  fortress ; 
and  the  point  of  land  on  which  it  stood  is  still  known 
by  the  name  of  the  redoubtable  corsair. 

Another  battery,  much  more  formidable  from  the 
number  and  size  of  the  pieces,  was  raised  on  an  emi- 
nence to  the  south  of  St.  Elmo,  and  played  both  upon 


376 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


that  fort  and  upon  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo.  The 
counterscarp  of  the  former  fortress  was  shaved  away, 
so  as  to  allow  a  free  range  to  the  artillery  of  the  be- 
siegers j  '^  and  two  cannon  were  planted  on  the  ravelin, 
which  directed  a  searching  fire  on  the  interior  of  the 
fortress,  compelling  the  garrison  to  shelter  themselves 
behind  retrenchments  constructed  under  the  direction 
of  Miranda.''' 

The  artillery  of  the  Turks  now  opened  with  dreadful 
effect,  as  they  concentrated  their  fire  on  the  naked  walls 
of  St.  Elmo.  No  masonry  could  long  withstand  the 
tempest  of  iron  and  ponderous  marble  shot  which  was 
hurled  from  the  gigantic  engines  of  the  besiegers. 
Fragments  of  the  wall  fell  off  as  if  it  had  been  made 
of  plaster  ;  and  St.  Elmo  trembled  to  its  foundations 
under  the  thunders  of  the  terrible  ordnance.  The 
heart  of  the  stoutest  warrior  might  well  have  faltered 
as  he  saw  the  rents  each  day  growing  wider  and  wider, 
as  if  gaping  to  give  entrance  to  the  fierce  multitude 
that  was  swarming  at  the  gates. 

In  this  extremity,  with  the  garrison  wasted  by  the 
constant  firing  of  the  enemy,  worn  down  by  excessive 
toil,  many  of  the  knights  wounded,  all  of  them  harassed 
by  long-protracted  vigils,  it  was  natural  that  the  greater 
part  should  feel  they  had  done  all  that  duty  required 
of  them,  and  that  without  loss  of  honor  they  might  re- 
tire from  a  post  that  was  no  longer  tenable.  They  ac- 
cordingly resolved  to  apply  to  the  grand  master  to  send 

'3  Balbi,  Verdadera  Rclacion,  fol.  39. 

'4  Ibid.,  fol.  39-42. — Calderon,  Gloriosa  Dcfensa  de  Malta,  p.  46. — 
De  Thou,  Hist,  universelle,  torn.  v.  p.  58. — Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta, 
vol.  ii.  p.  204. — Miniana,  Hist,  de  Espana,  p.  350. 


HEROIC  DEFENCE    OF  ST.  ELMO. 


377 


his  boats  at  once  to  transport  them  and  the  rest  of  the 
garrison  to  II  Borgo.  The  person  whom  they  chose  for 
the  mission  was  the  Chevalier  de  Medrano,  who,  as  La 
Valette  would  know,  was  not  likely  to  exaggerate  the 
difficulties  of  their  situation. 

Medrano  accordingly  crossed  the  harbor,  and,  in  an 
interview  with  the  grand  master,  explained  the  pur- 
pose of  his  visit.  He  spoke  of  the  dilapidated  state 
of  the  fortifications,  and  dwelt  on  the  forlorn  condition 
of  the  garrison,  which  was  only  to  be  sustained  by  con- 
stant reinforcements  from  II  Borgo.  But  this  was  merely 
another  mode  of  consuming  the  strength  of  the  order. 
It  would  be  better,  therefore,  instead  of  prolonging  a 
desperate  defence,  which  must  end  in  the  ruin  of  the 
defenders,  to  remove  them  at  once  to  the  to^vn,  where 
they  could  make  common  cause  with  their  brethren 
against  the  enemy. 

La  Valette  listened  attentively  to  Medrano' s  argu- 
ments, which  were  well  deserving  of  consideration. 
But,  as  the  affair  was  of  the  last  importance  to  the  in- 
terests of  his  little  community,  he  chose  to  lay  it  be- 
fore the  council  of  Grand  Crosses, — men  who  filled 
the  highest  stations  in  the  order.  They  were  unani- 
mously of  the  same  opinion  as  Medrano.  Not  so  was 
La  Valette.  He  felt  that  with  the  maintenance  of 
St.  Elmo  was  connected  the  very  existence  of  the 
order.  The  viceroy  of  Sicily,  he  told  his  brethren, 
had  declared  that  if  this  strong  post  were  in  the  hands 
of  the  enemy  he  would  not  hazard  his  master's  fleet 
there  to  save  the  island.  And,  next  to  their  own  good 
swords,  it  was  on  the  Sicilian  succors  that  they  must 
rely.  The  knights  must  maintain  the  post  at  all  haz- 
32* 


378  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

ards.  The  viceroy  could  not  abandon  them  in  their 
need.  He  himself  would  not  desert  them.  He  would 
keep  them  well  supplied  with  whatever  was  required 
for  their  defence,  and,  if  necessary,  would  go  over  and 
take  the  command  in  person,  and  make  good  the  place 
against  the  infidel,  or  die  in  the  breach. 

The  elder  knights,  on  learning  the  grand  master's 
decision,  declared  their  resolution  to  abide  by  it. 
They  knew  how  lightly  he  held  his  life  in  comparison 
with  the  cause  to  which  it  was  consecrated ;  and  they 
avowed  their  determination  to  shed  the  last  drop  of 
their  blood  in  defence  of  the  post  intrusted  to  them. 
The  younger  brethren  were  not  so  easily  reconciled  to 
the  decision  of  their  superiors.  To  remain  there  longer 
was  a  wanton  sacrifice  of  life,  they  said.  They  were 
penned  up  in  the  fort,  like  sheep,  tamely  waiting  to  be 
devoured  by  the  fierce  wolves  that  were  thirsting  for 
their  blood.  This  they  could  not  endure  ;  and,  if  the 
grand  master  did  not  send  to  take  them  off  at  once, 
they  would  sally  out  against  the  enemy  and  find  an 
honorable  death  on  the  field  of  battle.  A  letter  signed 
by  fifty  of  the  knights,  expressing  their  determination, 
was  accordingly  despatched  by  one  of  their  number  to 
II  Borgo. 

La  Valette  received  the  communication  with  feelings 
in  which  sorrow  was  mingled  with  indignation.  It  was 
not  enough,  he  said,  for  them  to  die  the  honorable 
death  which  they  so  much  coveted.  They  must  die  in 
the  manner  he  prescribed.  They  were  bound  to  obey 
his  commands.  He  reminded  them  of  the  vows  taken 
at  the  time  of  their  profession,  and  the  obligation  of 
every  loyal  knight  to  sacrifice  his  life,  if  necessary,  for 


HEROIC  DEFENCE    OF  ST.  ELMO. 


379 


the  good  of  the  order.  Nor  would  they  gain  any  thing, 
he  added,  by  abandoning  their  post  and  returning  to 
the  town.  The  Turkish  army  would  soon  be  at  its 
gates,  and  the  viceroy  of  Sicily  would  leave  them  to 
fheir  fate. 

That  he  might  not  appear,  however,  to  pass  too 
lightly  by  their  remonstrances,  La  Valette  determined 
to  send  three  commissioners  to  inspect  St.  Elmo  and 
report  on  its  condition.  This  would  at  least  have  the 
advantage  of  gaining  time,  when  every  hour  gained 
was  of  importance.  He  also  sent  to  Sicily  to  remon- 
strate on  the  tardiness  of  the  viceroy's  movements,  and 
to  urge  the  necessity  of  immediate  succors  if  he  would 
save  the  castle. 

The  commissioners  were  received  with  joy  by  the 
refractory  knights,  whom  they  found  so  intent  on  their 
departure  that  they  were  already  beginning  to  throw 
the  shot  into  the  wells,  to  prevent  its  falling  into  the 
hands  of  the  Turks.  They  eagerly  showed  the  com- 
missioners every  part  of  the  works,  tlie  ruinous  condi- 
tion of  which,  indeed,  spoke  more  forcibly  than  the 
murmurs  of  the  garrison.  Two  of  the  body  adopted 
the  views  of  the  disaffected  party,  and  pronounced  the 
fort  no  longer  tenable.  But  the  third,  an  Italian 
cavalier,  named  Castriot,  was  of  a  different  way  of 
thinking.  The  fortifications,  he  admitted,  were  in  a 
bad  state,  but  it  was  far  from  a  desperate  one.  With 
fresh  troops  and  the  materials  that  could  be  furnished 
from  the  town,  they  might  soon  be  put  in  condition  to 
hold  out  for  some  time  longer.  Such  an  opinion,  so 
boldly  avowed,  in  opposition  to  the  complaints  of  the 
kniglits,  touched  their  honor.     A  hot  dispute  arose  be- 


380  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

tween  the  parties;  and  evil  consequences  might  have 
ensued,  had  not  the  commander,  De  Broglio,  and  the 
bailiff  of  Negropont,  to  stop  the  tumult,  caused  the 
alarm-bell  to  be  rung,  which  sent  every  knight  to  his 
post. 

Castriot,  on  his  return,  made  a  similar  report  to  the 
grand  master,  and  boldly  offered  to  make  good  his 
words.  If  La  Valette  would  allow  him  to  muster  a 
force,  he  would  pass  over  to  St.  Elmo  and  put  it  in 
condition  still  to  hold  out  against  the  Ottoman  arms. 

La  Valette  readily  assented  to  a  proposal  which  he 
may  perhaps  have  originally  suggested.  No  compulsion 
was  to  be  used  in  a  service  of  so  much  danger.  But 
volunteers  speedily  came  forward,  knights,  soldiers, 
and  inhabitants  of  both  town  and  country.  The  only 
difficulty  was  in  making  the  selection.  All  eagerly 
contended  for  the  glory  of  being  enrolled  in  this  little 
band  of  heroes. 

La  Valette  wa^  cheered  by  the  exhibition  of  this 
generous  spirit  in  his  followers.  It  gave  assurance  of 
success  stronger  than  was  to  be  derived  from  any  for- 
eign aid.  He  wrote  at  once  to  the  discontented  knights 
in  St.  Elmo  and  informed  them  of  what  had  been  done. 
Their  petition  was  now  granted.  They  should  be  re- 
lieved that  very  evening.  They  had  only  to  resign 
their  posts  to  their  successors.  "Return,  my  breth- 
ren," he  concluded,  "to  the  convent.  There  you  will 
be  safe  for  the  present ;  and  I  shall  have  less  apprehen- 
sion for  the  fate  of  the  fortress,  on  which  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  island  so  much  depends." 

The  knights,  who  had  received  some  intimation  of 
the   course  the   affair  was  taking  in   II  Borgo,  were 


HEROIC  DEFENCE    OF  ST.  ELMO.  381 

greatly  disconcerted  by  it.  To  surrender  to  others  the 
post  committed  to  their  own  keeping  would  be  a  dis- 
honor they  could  not  endure.  When  the  letter  of  the 
grand  master  arrived,  their  mortification  was  extreme; 
and  it  was  not  diminished  by  the  cool  and  cutting  con- 
tempt but  thinly  veiled  under  a  show  of  solicitude  for 
their  personal  safety.  They  implored  the  bailiff  of 
Negropont  to  write  in  their  name  to  La  Valette  and 
beseech  him  not  to  subject  them  to  such  a  disgrace. 
They  avowed  their  penitence  for  the  course  they  had 
taken,  and  only  asked  that  they  might  now  be  allowed 
to  give  such  proofs  of  devotion  to  the  cause  as  should 
atone  for  their  errors. 

The  letter  was  despatched  by  a  swimmer  across  the 
harbor.  But  the  grand  master  coldly  answered  that 
veterans  without  subordination  were  in  his  eyes  of  less 
worth  than  raw  recruits  who  submitted  to  discipline. 
The  wretchedness  of  the  knights  at  this  repulse  was 
unspeakable ;  for  in  their  eyes  dishonor  was  far  worse 
than  death.  In  their  extremity  they  addressed  them- 
selves again  to  La  Valette,  renewing  their  protestations 
of  sorrow  for  the  past,  and  in  humble  terms  requesting 
his  forgiveness.  The  chief  felt  that  he  had  pushed  the 
matter  far  enough.  It  was  perhaps  the  point  to  which 
he  had  intended  to  bring  it.  It  would  not  be  well  to 
drive  his  followers  to  despair.  He  felt  now  they  might 
be  trusted.  He  accordingly  dismissed  the  levies,  re- 
taining only  a  part  of  these  brave  men  to  reinforce  the 
garrison ;  and  with  them  he  sent  supplies  of  ammuni- 
tion, and  materials  for  repairing  th.e  battered  works. 's 

'5  For  the  preceding  pages,  setting  forth  the  embassies  to  La  Valette, 
and  exhibiting  in  such  bold  relief  the  character  of  the  grand  master, 


382  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

During  this  time  the  Turkish  commander  was  press- 
ing the  siege  with  vigor.  Day  and  night  the  batteries 
thundered  on  tlie  ramparts  of  the  devoted  fortress. 
The  ditch  was  strewed  with  fragments  torn  from  the 
walls  by  the  iron  tempest;  and  a  yawning  chasm, 
which  had  been  gradually  opening  on  the  southwestern 
side  of  the  castle,  showed  that  a  practicable  breach  was 
at  length  effected.  The  uncommon  vivacity  with  which 
the  guns  played  through  the  whole  of  the  fifteenth  of 
June,  and  the  false  alarms  with  which  the  garrison  was 
harassed  on  the  following  night,  led  to  the  belief  that 
a  general  assault  was  immediately  intended.  The  sup- 
position was  correct.  On  the  sixteenth,  at  dawn,  the 
whole  force  of  the  besiegers  was  under  arms.  The 
appointed  signal  was  given  by  the  discharge  of  a  can- 
non ;  when  a  numerous  body  of  janizaries,  formed 
into  column,  moved  swiftly  forward  to  storm  the  great 
breach  of  the  castle. 

Meanwhile,  the  Ottoman  fleet,  having  left  its  anchor- 
age on  the  eastern  side  of  the  island,  had  moved  round, 
and  now  lay  off  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Port,  where  its 
heavy  guns  were  soon  brought  to  bear  on  the  seaward 
side  of  St.  Elmo.  The  battery  on  Point  Dragut  opened 
on  the  western  flank  of  the  fortress;  and  four  thou- 
sand musketeers  in  the  trenches  swept  the  breach  with 
showers  of  bullets,  and  picked  off  those  of  the  garrison 
who  showed  their  heads  above  the  parapet. 

I  have  been  chiefly  indebted  to  Vertot  (Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
309-312).  The  same  story  is  told,  more  concisely,  by  Calderon, 
Gloriosa  Defensa  de  Malta,  pp.  60-67 ;  Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib. 
vi.  cap.  25 ;  De  Thou,  Hist,  universelle,  torn.  v.  p.  61 ;  Campana, 
Filippo  Secondo,  par.  ii.  p.  159  ;  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  44, 
45. 


HEROIC  DEFENCE    OF  ST.  ELMO.  383 

The  guns  of  the  besieged,  during  this  time,  were 
not  idle.  They  boldly  answered  the  cannonade  of  the 
vessels ;  and  on  the  land-side  the  play  of  artillery  and 
musketry  was  incessant.  The  besieged  now  concen- 
trated their  aim  on  the  formidable  body  of  janizaries, 
who,  as  already  noticed,  were  hurrying  forward  to  the 
assault.  Their  leading  files  were  mowed  down,  and 
their  flank  cruelly  torn,  by  the  cannon  of  St.  Angelo, 
at  less  than  half  a  mile's  distance.  But,  though  stag- 
gered by  this  double  fire  on  front  and  flank,  the  jani- 
zaries were  not  stayed  in  their  career,  nor  even  thrown 
into  disarray.  Heedless  of  those  who  fell,  the  dark 
column  came  steadily  on,  like  a  thunder-cloud ;  while 
the  groans  of  the  dying  were  drowned  in  the  loud 
battle-cries  with  which  their  comrades  rushed  to  the 
assault.  The  fosse,  choked  up  with  the  ruins  of  the 
ramparts,  afforded  a  bridge  to  the  assailants,  who  had 
no  need  of  the  fascines  with  which  their  pioneers  were 
prepared  to  fill  up  the  chasm.  The  approach  to  the 
breach,  however,  was  somewhat  steep;  and  the  breach 
itself  was  defended  by  a  body  of  knights  and  soldiers, 
who  poured  volleys  of  musketry  thick  as  hail  on  the 
assailants.  Still  they  pushed  forward  through  the  storm, 
and,  after  a  fierce  struggle,  the  front  rank  found  itself 
at  the  summit,  face  to  face  with  its  enemies.  But  the 
strength  of  the  Turks  was  nearly  exhausted  by  their 
efforts.  They  were  hewn  down  by  the  Christians,  who 
came  fresh  into  action.  Yet  others  succeeded  those 
who  fell,  till,  thus  outnumbered,  the  knights  began  to 
lose  ground,  and  the  forces  were  more  equally  matched. 
Then  came  the  struggle  of  man  against  man,  where 
each  party  was  spurred  on  by  the  fury  of  religious  hate, 


384  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

and  Christian  and  Moslem  looked  to  paradise  as  the 
reward  of  him  who  fell  in  battle  against  the  infidel. 
No  mercy  was  asked  ;  none  was  shown ;  and  long  and 
hard  was  the  conflict  between  the  flower  of  the  Moslem 
soldiery  and  the  best  knights  of  Christendom.  In  the 
heat  of  the  fight  an  audacious  Turk  planted  his  standard 
on  the  rampart.  But  it  was  speedily  wrenched  away  by 
the  Chevalier  de  Medrano,  who  cut  down  the  Mussulman 
and  at  the  same  moment  received  a  mortal  wound  from 
an  arquebuse.'^  As  the  contest  lasted  far  into  the  day, 
the  heat  became  intense,  and  added  sorely  to  the  dis- 
tress of  the  combatants.  Still,  neither  party  slackened 
their  efforts.  Though  several  times  repulsed,  the  Turks 
returned  to  the  assault  with  the  same  spirit  as  before ; 
and  when  sabre  and  scimitar  were  broken,  the  com- 
batants closed  with  their  daggers,  and  rolled  down  the 
declivity  of  the  breach,  struggling  in  mortal  conflict 
with  each  other. 

While  the  work  of  death  was  going  on  in  this  quar- 
ter, a  vigorous  attempt  was  made  in  another  to  carry 
the  fortress  by  escalade.  A  body  of  Turks,  penetrating 
into  the  fosse,  raised  their  ladders  against  the  walls, 
and,  pushed  forward  by  their  comrades  in  the  rear, 
endeavored  to  force  an  ascent,  under  a  plunging  fire 
of  musketry  from  the  garrison.  Fragments  of  rock, 
logs  of  wood,  ponderous  iron  shot,  were  rolled  over 
the  parapet,  mingled  with  combustibles  and  hand- 
's The  remains  of  Medrano  were  brought  over  to  II  Borgo,  where 
La  Valette,  from  respect  to  his  memory,  caused  them  to  be  laid  among 
those  of  the  Grand  Crosses :  "  El  gran  Maestre  lo  mando  enterrar  en 
una  sepultura,  adonde  se  entierran  los  cavalleros  de  la  gran  Cruz,  por- 
que  esta  era  la  mayor  honra,  que  en  tal  tiempo  le  podia  hazer,  y  el 
muy  bien  la  mcrecia."     Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  51. 


HEROIC  DEFENCE    OF  ST.  ELMO.  385 

grenades,  which,  exploding  as  they  descended,  shat- 
tered the  ladders,  and  hurled  the  mangled  bodies  of 
the  assailants  on  the  rocky  bottom  of  the  ditch.  In 
this  contest  one  invention  proved  of  singular  use  to 
the  besieged.  It  was  furnished  them  by  La  Valette, 
and  consisted  of  an  iron  hooj),  wound  round  with 
cloth  steeped  in  nitre  and  bituminous  substances, 
which,  when  ignited,  burned  with  inextinguishable 
fury.  These  hoops,  thrown  on  the  assailants,  enclosed 
thern  in  their  fiery  circles.  Sometimes  two  were  thus 
imprisoned  in  the  same  hoop;  and,  as  the  flowing 
dress  of  the  Turks  favored  the  conflagration,  they  were 
speedily  wrapped  in  a  blaze  which  scorched  them  se- 
verely, if  it  did  not  burn  them  to  death. '^  This  inven- 
tion, so  simple, — and  rude,  as  in  our  day  it  might  be 
thought, — was  so  disastrous  in  its  effects  that  it  was 
held  in  more  dread  by  the  Turks  than  any  other  of  the 
fireworks  employed  by  the  besieged. 

A  similar  attempt  to  scale  the  walls  was  made  on  the 
other  side  of  the  castle,  but  was  defeated  by  a  well- 
directed  fire  from  the  guns  of  St.  Angelo  across  the 
harbor, — ^which  threw  their  shot  with  such  precision 
as  to  destroy  most  of  the  storming-party  and  compel 
the  rest  to  abandon  their  design.'^    Indeed,  during  the 

"7  The  invention  of  this  missile  Vertot  claims  for  La  Valette. 
(Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  ii.  p.  215.)  Balbi  refers  it  to  a  brother  of  the 
order,  named  Ramon  Fortunii.     Verdadera  Relacion,  p.  48. 

18  The  first  shot  was  not  so  successful,  killing  eight  of  their  own 
side! — "  Mas  el  artillero,  o  fuesse  la  prissa,  o  fuesse  la  turbacion  que 
en  semejantes  casos  suele  sobre  venir  en  los  hombres  el  se  tuvo  mas 
a  mano  drecha,  que  no  deviera,  pues  de  aquel  tiro  mato  ocho  de  losr 
nuestros  que  defendian  aquella  posta."  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion, 
fol.  50. 

Philip. — Vol.  II. — r  33 


386  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

whole  of  the  assault,  the  artillery  of  St.  Angelo,  St. 
Michael,  and  II  Borgo  kept  up  so  irritating  a  fire  on 
the  exposed  flank  and  rear  of  the  enemy  as  greatly 
embarrassed  his  movements  and  did  good  service  to 
the  besieged. 

Thus  the  battle  raged  along  the  water  and  on  the 
land.  The  whole  circuit  of  the  Great  Port  was  studded 
with  fire.  A  din  of  hideous  noises  rose  in  the  air, — the 
roar  of  cannon,  the  rattle  of  musketry,  the  hissing  of 
fiery  missiles,  the  crash  of  falling  masonry,  the  shrieks 
of  the  dying,  and,  high  above  all,  the  fierce  cries  of 
those  who  struggled  for  mastery !  To  add  to  the  tu- 
mult, in  the  heat  of  the  fight,  a  spark  falling  into  the 
magazine  of  combustibles  in  the  fortress,  it  blew  up 
with  a  tremendous  explosion,  drowning  every  other 
noise,  and  for  a  moment  stilling  the  combat.  A  cloud 
of  smoke  and  vapor,  rising  into  the  air,  settled  heavily, 
like  a  dark  canopy,  above  St.  Elmo.  It  seemed  as  if  a 
volcano  had  suddenly  burst  from  the  peaceful  waters 
of  the  Mediterranean,  belching  out  volumes  of  fire  and 
smoke,  and  shaking  the  island  to  its  centre  ! 

The  fight  had  lasted  for  some  hours ;  and  still  the 
little  band  of  Christian  warriors  made  good  their  stand 
against  the  overwhelming  odds  of  numbers.  The  sun 
had  now  risen  high  in  the  heavens,  and,  as  its  rays 
beat  fiercely  on  the  heads  of  the  assailants,  their  im- 
petuosity began  to  slacken.  At  length,  faint  with  heat 
and  excessive  toil,  and  many  staggering  under  wounds, 
it  was  with  difficulty  that  the  janizaries  could  be  brought 
back  to  the  attack ;  and  Mustapha  saw  with  chagrin 
that  St.  Elmo  was  not  to  be  won  that  day.  Soon  after 
noon,  he  gave  the  signal  to  retreat ;  and  the  Moslem 


HEROIC  DEFENCE    OF  ST.  ELMO.  387 

host,  drawing  off  under  a  galling  fire  from  the  garrison, 
fell  back  in  sullen  silence  into  their  trenches,  as  the 
tiger,  baffled  in  his  expected  prey,  takes  refuge  from 
the  spear  of  the  hunter  in  his  jungle. '^ 

As  the  Turks  withdrew,  the  garrison  of  St.  Elmo 
raised  a  shout  of  victory  that  reached  across  the  waters 
and  was  cheerily  answered  from  both  St.  Angelo  and 
the  town,  whose  inhabitants  had  watched  with  intense 
Interest  the  current  of  the  fight,  on  the  result  of  which 
their  own  fate  so  much  depended. 

The  number  of  Moslems  who  perished  in  the  assault 
can  only  be  conjectured.  But  it  must  have  been  very 
large..  That  of  the  garrison  is  stated  as  high  as  three 
hundred  men.  Of  these,  seventeen  were  knights  of  the 
order.  But  the  common  soldier,  it  was  observed,  did 
his  duty  as  manfully  throughout  the  day  as  the  best 
knight  by  whose  side  he  fought.^"  Few,  if  any,  of  the 
survivors  escaped  without  wounds.  Such  as  were  badly 
injured  were  transferred  at  once  to  the  town,  and  an 
equal  number  of  able-bodied  troops  sent  to  replace 
them,  together  with  supplies  of  ammunition,  and  ma- 
terials for  repairing,  as  far  as  possible,  the  damage  to 
the  works.  Among  those  who  suffered  most  from  their 
wounds  was  the  bailiff  of  Negropont.  He  obstinately 
refused  to  be  removed  to  the  town ;  and  when  urged 

19  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  49-51. — Calderon,  Glpriosa  De- 
fensa  de  Malta,  p.  72,  et  seq. — Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
214-216. — Cabrera,  Filipe  Segtmdo,  lib.  vi.  cap.  25. — Sagredo,  Monar- 
cas  Othomanos,  p.  245. — Herrera,  Historia  general,  lib.  xii.  cap.  6. 

*°  "  En  este  assaltc  y  en  todos  me  ban  dicho  cavalleros,  (jue  pelearo 
no  solamente  ellos,  y  los  soldados,  mas  que  los  for9ados,  bonas  vollas, 
y  Malteses  murieron  con  tanto  animo,  como  qualquiera  otra  persona 
de  mayor  estima."     Ibid.,  fol.  51. 


388  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

by  La  Valette  to  allow  a  substitute  to  be  sent  to  relieve 
him,  the  veteran  answered  that  he  was  ready  to  yield 
up  his  command  to  any  one  who  should  be  appointed 
in  his  place ;  but  he  trusted  he  should  be  allowed  still 
to  remain  in  St.  Elmo  and  shed  the  last  drop  of  his 
blood  in  defence  of  the  Faith.'" 

A  similar  heroic  spirit  was  shown  in  the  competition 
of  the  knights,  and  even  of  the  Maltese  soldiers,  to 
take  the  place  of  those  who  had  fallen  in  the  fortress. 
It  was  now  not  merely  the  post  of  danger,  but,  as 
might  be  truly  said,  the  post  of  death.  Yet  these 
brave  men  eagerly  contended  for  it,  as  for  the  palm  of 
glory;  and  La  Valette  was  obliged  to  refuse  the  appli- 
cation of  twelve  knights  of  the  language  of  Italy,  on 
the  ground  that  the  complement  of  the  garrison  was 
full. 

The  only  spark  of  hope  now  left  was  that  of  receiv- 
ing the  succors  from  Sicily.  But  the  viceroy,  far  from 
quickening  his  movements,  seemed  willing  to  play  the 
part  of  the  matador  in  one  of  his  national  bull-fights, 
— allowing  the  contending  parties  in  the  arena  to  ex- 
haust themselves  in  the  struggle,  and  reserving  his  own 
appearance  till  a  single  thrust  from  his  sword  should 
decide  the  combat. 

Still,  some  chance  of  prolonging  its  existence  re- 
mained to  St.  Elmo  while  the  communication  could  be 
maintained  with  St.  Angelo  and  the  town,  by  means 
of  which  the  sinking  strength  of  the  garrison  was  con- 

2»  "  Que  si  su  senoria  Illastrissima  tenia  otra  persona,  para  tal  cargo 
major,  q  la  embiasse,  quel  lo  obedeceria  como  a  tal,  mas  quel  queria 
quedar  en  sant  Ermo,  como  privado  cavallero,  y  por  sa  religion  sacri- 
ficar  su  cuerpo."     Balbi,  Verdadcra  Relacion,  fol.  44. 


HEROIC  DEFENCE    OF  ST.  ELMO.  389 

tinually  renewed  with  the  fresh  life-blood  that  was 
poured  into  its  veins.  The  Turkish  commander  at 
length  became  aware  that,  if  he  would  end  the  siege, 
this  communication  must  be  cut  off.  It  would  have 
been  well  for  him  had  he  come  to  this  conclusion 
sooner. 

By  the  advice  of  Dragut,  the  investment  of  the  castle 
was  to  be  completed  by  continuing  the  lines  of  in- 
trenchment  to  the  Great  Port,  where  a  battery  mounted 
with  heavy  guns  would  command  the  point  of  debarka- 
tion. While  conducting  this  work,  the  Moorish  cap- 
tain was  wounded  on  the  head  by  the  splinter  from  a 
rock  struck  by  a  cannon-shot,  which  laid  him  senseless 
in  the  trenches.  Mustapha,  commanding  a  cloak  to 
be  thrown  over  the  fallen  chief,  had  him  removed  to 
his  tent.  The  wound  proved  mortal;  and,  though 
Dragut  survived  to  learn  the  fate  of  St.  Elmo,  he 
seems  to  have  been  in  no  condition  to  aid  the  siege  by 
his  counsels.  The  loss  of  this  able  captain  was  the 
severest  blow  that  could  have  been  inflicted  on  the 
besiegers. 

While  the  intrenchments  were  in  progress,  the  enemy 
kept  up  an  unintermitting  fire  on  the  tottering  ramparts 
of  the  fortress.  This  was  accompanied  by  false  alarms, 
and  by  night-attacks,  in  which  the  flaming  missiles,  as 
they  shot  through  the  air,  cast  a  momentary  glare  over 
the  waters,  that  showed  the  dark  outlines  of  St.  Elmo 
towering  in  ruined  majesty  above  the  scene  of  desola- 
tion. The  artillery-men  of  St.  Angelo,  in  the  obscurity 
of  the  night,  were  guided  in  their  aim  by  the  light 
of  the  enemy's  fireworks.'"    These  attacks  were  made 

'^  "  La  escuridad  de  la  noche  fue  luego  muy  clara,  por  la  grade 
33* 


390 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


by  the  Turks  not  so  much  in  the  expectation  of  carry- 
ing the  fort,  though  they  were  often  attended  with  a 
considerable  loss  of  life,  as  for  the  purpose  of  wearing 
out  the  strength  of  the  garrison.  And  dreary  indeed 
was  the  condition  of  the  latter :  fighting  by  day,  toil- 
ing through  the  livelong  night  to  repair  the  ravages  in 
the  works,  they  had  no  power  to  take  either  the  rest  or 
the  nourishment  necessary  to  recruit  their  exhausted 
strength.  To  all  this  was  now  to  be  added  a  feeling 
of  deeper  despondency,  as  they  saw  the  iron  band 
closing  around  them  which  was  to  sever  them  forever 
from  their  friends. 

On  the  eighteenth  of  the  month  the  work  of  invest- 
ment was  completed,  and  the  extremity  of  the  lines 
was  garnished  with  a  redoubt  mounting  two  large  guns, 
which,  with  the  musketry  from  the  trenches,  would 
sweep  the  landing-place  and  effectually  cut  off  any  fur- 
ther supplies  from  the  other  side  of  the  harbor.  Thus 
left  to  their  own  resources,  the  days  of  the  garrison 
were  numbered. 

La  Valette,  who  had  anxiously  witnessed  these  opera- 
tions of  the  enemy,  had  done  all  he  could  to  retard 
them,  by  firing  incessantly  on  the  laborers  in  the  hope 
of  driving  them  from  the  trenches.  When  the  work 
was  completed,  his  soul  was  filled  with  anguish;  and 
his  noble  features,  which  usually  wore  a  tinge  of  melan- 
choly, were  clouded  with  deeper  sadness,  as  he  felt  he 
must  now  abandon  his  brave  comrades  to  their  fate. 

catidad  de  los  fuegos  artificiales,  que  de  ambas  partes  se  arojavan,  y 
de  tal  manera  que  los  que  estavamos  en  san  Miguel,  veyamos  muy 
claramcnte  sant  Ermo,  y  los  artilleros  de  sant  Angel  y  de  otras  partes 
apuntavan,  a  la  lumbre  de  los  fuegos  enemigos."  Balbi,  Verdadera 
Relacion,  fol.  48. 


HEROIC  DEFENCE    OF  ST.  ELMO. 


391 


On  the  twentieth  of  the  month  was  the  festival  of 
Corpus  Christi,  which  in  happier  days  had  been  always 
celebrated  with  great  pomp  by  the  Hospitallers.  They 
did  not  fail  to  observe  it,  even  at  this  time.  A  proces- 
sion was  formed,  with  the  grand  master  at  its  head ; 
and  the  knights  walked  clad  in  the  dark  robes  of  the 
order,  embroidered  with  the  white  cross  of  Malta. 
They  were  accompanied  by  the  whole  population  of 
the  place,  men,  women,  and  children.  They  made  the 
circuit  of  the  town,  taking  the  direction  least  exposed 
to  the  enemy's  fire.  On  reaching  the  church,  they 
prostrated  themselves  on  the  ground,  and,  with  feelings 
rendered  yet  more  solemn  by  their  own  situation,  and 
above  all  by  that  of  their  brave  comrades  in  St.  Elmo, 
they  implored  the  Lord  of  Hosts  to  take  pity  on  their 
distress,  and  not  to  allow  his  enemies  to  triumph  over 
the  true  soldiers  of  the  Cross. ^ 

During  the  whole  of  the  twenty-first,  the  fire  of  the 
besiegers  was  kept  up  with  more  than  usual  severity, 
until  in  some  places  the  crumbling  wall  was  shot  away, 
down  to  tlie  bare  rock  on  which  it  stood.  ^"^  Their 
pioneers,  who  had  collected  loads  of  brushwood  for 
the  purpose,  filled  up  the  ditch  with  their  fascines ; 
which,  as  they  were  covered  with  wet  earth,  defied  the 
efforts  of  the  garrison  to  set  them  on  fire.  Throughout 
the  following  night  a  succession  of  false  alarms  kept  the 
soldiers  constantly  under  arms.  All  this  prognosticated 
a  general  assault.     It  came  the  next  day. 

With  the  earliest  streak  of  light,  the  Turkish  troops 
were  in  motion.     Soon  they  came  pouring  in  ovej  the 

*3  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  53. 

=4  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  ii.  p.  214, 


392 


SIEGE   OF  MALTA. 


fosse,  which,  choked  up  as  it  was,  offered  no  impedi- 
ment. Some  threw  themselves  on  the  breach.  The 
knights  and  their  followers  were  there  to  receive  them. 
Others  endeavored  to  scale  the  ramparts,  but  were 
driven  back  by  showers  of  missiles.  The  musketry 
was  feeble,  for  ammunition  had  begun  to  fail.  But 
everywhere  the  assailants  were  met  with  the  same 
unconquerable  spirit  as  before.  It  seemed  as  if  the 
defenders  of  St.  Elmo,  exhausted  as  they  had  been 
by  their  extraordinary  sufferings,  had  renewed  their 
strength,  as  by  a  miracle.  Thrice  the  enemy  returned 
to  the  assault;  and  thrice  he  was  repulsed.  The 
carnage  was  terrible.  Christian  and  Mussulman  grap- 
pling fiercely  together,  until  the  ruins  on  which  they 
fought  were  heaped  with  the  bodies  of  the  slain. 

The  combat  had  lasted  several  hours.  Amazed  at 
the  resistance  which  he  met  with  from  this  handful  of 
warriors,  Mustapha  felt  that,  if  he  would  stop  the  waste 
of  life  in  his  followers,  he  must  defer  the  possession  of 
the  place  for  one  day  longer.  Stunned  as  his  enemies 
must  be  by  the  blow  he  had  now  dealt,  it  would  be 
beyond  the  powers  of  nature  for  them  to  stand  another 
assault.  He  accordingly  again  gave  the  signal  for 
retreat ;  and  the  victors  again  raised  the  shout — a 
feeble  shout — of  triumph;  while  the  banner  of  the 
order,  floating  from  the  ramparts,  proclaimed  that  St. 
Elmo  was  still  in  the  hands  of  the  Christians.  It  was 
the  last  triumph  of  the  garrison.^ 

They  were  indeed  reduced  to  extremity ;  with  their 

»S  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  ii.  pp.  216,  217. — Balbi,  Verdadera 
Relacion,  fol.  54. — Calderon,  Gloriosa  Defensa  de  Malta,  p.  80,  et 
Beq. — Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  vi.  cap.  25. 


HEROIC  DEFENCE    OF  ST.  ELMO. 


393 


ammunition  nearly  exhausted,  their  weapons  battered 
and  broketi,  their  fortifications  yawning  with  breaches, 
like  some  tempest-tossed  vessel  with  its  seams  opening 
in  every  direction  and  ready  to  founder,  the  few  sur- 
vivors covered  with  wounds,  and  many  of  them  so  far 
crippled  as  to  be  scarcely  able  to  drag  their  enfeebled 
bodies  along  the  ramparts.  One  more  attack,  and  the 
scene  would  be  closed. 

In  this  deplorable  state,  they  determined  to  make  an 
effort  to  communicate  with  their  friends  on  the  other 
side  of  the  harbor  and  report  to  them  their  condition. 
The  distance  was  not  great;  and  among  the  Maltese 
were  many  excellent  swimmers,  who,  trained  from 
childhood  to  the  sea,  took  to  it  as  to  their  native 
element.  One  of  these  offered  to  bear  a  message  to 
the  grand  master.  Diving  and  swimming  long  under 
water,  he  was  fortunate  enough  to  escape  the  enemy's 
bullets,  and  landed  safe  on  the  opposite  shore. 

La  Valette  was  deeply  affected  by  his  story,  though 
not  surprised  by  it.  With  the  rest  of  the  knights,  he  had 
watched  with  straining  eyes  the  course  of  the  fight;  and, 
though  marvelling  that,  in  spite  of  odds  so  great,  vic- 
tory should  have  remained  with  the  Christians,  he  knew 
how  dearly  they  must  have  bought  it.  Though  with 
little  confidence  in  his  success,  he  resolved  to  answer 
their  appeal  by  making  one  effort  to  aid  them.  Five 
large  barges  were  instantly  launched,  and  furnished  with 
a  reinforcement  of  troops  and  supplies  for  the  garrison. 
The  knights  thronged  to  the  quay,  each  eagerly  con- 
tending for  the  perilous  right  to  embark  in  them. 
They  thought  only  of  their  comrades  in  St.  Elmo. 

It  turned  out  as  La  Valette  had  foreseen.    The  land- 


394 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


ing-place  was  commanded  b)^  a  battery  of  heavy  guns, 
and  by  hundreds  of  musketeers,  menacing  instant  death 
to  whoever  should  approach  the  shore.  But  the  knights 
were  not  allowed  to  approach  it ;  for  the  Turkish  ad- 
miral, lying  off  the  entrance  of  the  Great  Port,  and 
aware  of  the  preparations  that  were  making,  sent  a  flo- 
tilla of  his  lighter  vessels  into  the  harbor  to  intercept  the 
convoy.  And  so  prompt  were  their  movements  that, 
unless  the  Christians  had  put  back  again  with  all  speed, 
they  would  have  been  at  once  surrounded  and  captured 
by  the  enemy. 

The  defenders  of  St.  Elmo,  who  had  watched  from 
the  ramparts  the  boats  coming  to  their  assistance,  saw 
the  failure  of  the  attempt ;  and  the  last  ray  of  hope 
faded  away  in  their  bosoms.  Their  doom  was  sealed. 
Little  more  was  left  but  calmly  to  await  the  stroke  of 
the  executioner.  Yet  they  did  not  abandon  themselves 
to  an  unmanly  despair;  but,  with  heroic  constancy, 
they  prepared  to  die  like  martyrs  for  the  good  cause  to 
which  they  had  consecrated  their  lives. 

That  night  was  passed,  not  in  vain  efforts  to  repair 
the  defences,  with  the  hope  of  protracting  existence 
some  fcAv  hours  longer,  but  in  the  solemn  preparation 
of  men  who  felt  themselves  standing  on  the  brink  of 
eternity.  They  prayed,  confessed,  received  the  sacra- 
ment, and,  exhorting  one  another  to  do  their  duty, 
again  renewed  their  vows,  which  bound  them  to  lay 
down  their  lives,  if  necessary,  in  defence  of  the  Faith. 
Some,  among  whom  Miranda  and  the  bailiff  of  Negro- 
pont  were  especially  noticed,  went  about  encouraging 
and  consoling  their  brethren,  and,  though  covered  with 
wounds  themselves,  administering  such  comfort  as  they 


HEROIC  DEFENCE    OF  ST.  ELMO. 


395 


could  to  the  sick  and  the  dying  ;  and  the  dying  lay 
thick  around,  mingled  with  the  dead,  on  the  ruins 
which  were  soon  to  become  their  common  sepulchre.^ 

Thus  passed  away  the  dreary  night ;  when,  tenderly 
embracing  one  another,  like  friends  who  part  forever, 
each  good  knight  repaired  to  his  post,  prepared  to  sell 
his  life  as  dearly  as  he  could.  Some  of  the  more  aged 
and  infirm,  and  those  crippled  by  their  wounds,  were 
borne  in  the  arms  of  their  comrades  to  the  spot  where, 
seated  on  the  ruins  and  wielding  their  ineffectual  swords, 
they  prepared,  like  true  and  loyal  knights,  to  die  upon 
the  breach. 

They  did  not  wait  long.  The  Turks,  so  often  balked 
of  their  prey,  called  loudly  to  be  led  to  the  assault. 
Their  advance  was  not  checked  by  the  feeble  volleys 
thrown  at  random  against  them  from  the  fortress ;  and 
they  were  soon  climbing  the  ascent  of  the  breach,  still 
slippery  with  the  carnage  of  the  preceding  day.  But, 
with  all  their  numbers,  it  was  long  before  they  could 
break  the  little  line  of  Maltese  chivalry  which  was 
there  to  receive  them.  Incredible  as  it  may  seem,  the 
struggle  lasted  for  some  hours  longer,  while  the  fate  of 
St.  Elmo  hung  suspended  in  the  balance.  At  length, 
after  a  short  respite,  the  Turkish  host  rallied  for  a  last 
assault ;  and  the  tide  of  battle,  pouring  through  the 
ample  breach  with  irresistible  fury,  bore  down  cava- 
lier  and   soldier,  leaving   no  living   thing   upon    the 

^  "  Ellos  como  aquellos  q  la  manana  havia  de  ser  su  postrer  dia  en 
este  mudo,  unos  con  otros  se  confessavan,  y  rogavan  a  nuestro  senor 
que  por  su  infinita  misericordia,  la  tuviesse  de  sus  animas,  pues  le 
costaron  su  preciossissima  sangre  para  redemirlas."  Balbi,  Verdadera 
Relacion,  fol.  54. — See  also  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  ii.  pp.  217, 
218 ; — Cabrera,  Fillpe  Segundo,  lib.  vi.  cap.  25. 


396 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


ramparts.  A  small  party  of  the  knights,  escaping  in 
the  tumult,  threw  themselves  into  the  chapel;  but, 
finding  that  no  quarter  was  given  to  those  who  surren- 
dered, they  rushed  out  and  perished  on  the  swords  of 
the  enemy.  A  body  of  nine  cavaliers,  posted  near  the 
end  of  the  fosse,  not  far  from  the  ground  occupied  by 
Dragut's  men,  surrendered  themselves  as  prisoners  of 
war  to  the  corsairs;  and  the  latter,  who,  in  their 
piratical  trade,  had  learned  to  regard  men  as  a  kind 
of  merchandise,  happily  refused  to  deliver  up  the 
Christians  to  the  Turks,  holding  them  for  ransom. 
These  were  the  only  members  of  the  order  w^ho  sur- 
vived the  massacre. ^7  A  few  Maltese  soldiers,  however, 
experienced  swimmers,  succeeded,  amidst  the  tumult, 
in  reaching  the  opposite  side  of  the  harbor,  where  they 
spread  the  sad  tidings  of  the  loss  of  St.  Elmo.  This 
was  speedily  confirmed  by  the  volleys  of  the  Turkish 
ordnance ;  and  the  standard  of  the  Crescent,  planted 
on  the  spot  so  lately  occupied  by  the  banner  of  St. 
John,  showed  too  plainly  that  this  strong  post,  the  key 
of  the  island,  had  passed  from  the  Christians  into  the 
hands  of  the  infidel. ^^ 

^  Vertot,  whose  appetite  for  the  marvellous  sometimes  carries  him 
into  the  miraculous,  gives  us  to  understand  that  not  one  of  the  garri- 
son survived  the  storming  of  St.  Elmo.  (Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  ii. 
p.  219.)  If  that  were  so,  one  would  like  to  know  how  the  historian 
got  his  knowledge  of  what  was  doing  in  the  fortress  the  day  and  night 
previous  to  the  assault.  The  details  quoted  above  from  Balbi  account 
for  this  knowledge,  and  carry  with  them  an  air  of  probability.  (Ver- 
dadera  Relacion,  fol.  55.) 

a8  "  Luego  que  entraron  los  Turcos  en  sant  Ermo,  abatieron  el  es- 
tadarte  de  san  Juan,  y  en  su  lugar  plantaron  una  vandera  del  gran 
Turco,  y  en  todo  aquel  dia  no  hizioron  otra  cosa,  que  plantar  vaderas, 
y  vanderillas  por  la  muralla,  segun  su  costumbre."     Ibid.,  fol.  55.— 


FALL    OF  ST.  ELMO. 


397 


The  Ottoman  fleet,  soon  afterwards,  doubling  the 
point,  entered  Port  Musiette,  on  the  west,  with  music 
playing,  and  gay  with  pennons  and  streamers;  while 
the  rocks  rang  with  the  shouts  of  the  Turkish  soldiery, 
and  the  batteries  on  shore  replied  in  thunders  to  the 
artillery  of  the  shipping. 

The  day  on  which  this  occurred,  the  twenty-third  of 
June,  was  that  of  the  festival  of  St.  John  the  Baptist, 
the  patron  of  the  order.  It  had  been  always  cele- 
brated by  the  knights  with  greater  splendor  than  any 
other  anniversary.  Now,  alas  !  it  was  to  them  a  day 
of  humiliation  and  mourning,  while  they  had  the  ad- 
ditional mortification  to  see  it  observed  as  a  day  of 
triumphant  jubilee  by  the  enemies  of  the.  Faith. '^ 

To  add  to  their  distress,  Mustapha  sullied  his  vic- 
tory by  some  brutal  acts,  which  seem  to  have  been  in 
keeping  with  his  character.  The  heads  of  four  of 
the  principal  knights,  among  them  those  of  Miranda 
and  the  bailiff  of  Negropont,  were  set  high  on  poles 
looking  towards  the  town.  A  spectacle  yet  more 
shocking  was  presented  to  the  eyes  of  the  besieged. 
The  Turkish  general  caused  the  bodies  of  several 
cavaliers — some  of  them,  it  is  said,  while  life  was  still 
palpitating  within  them — to  be  scored  on  the  bosoms 
with  gashes  in  the  form  of  a  cross.      Thus  defaced, 

See  also,  for  the  storming  of  St.  Elmo,  Calderon,  Gloriosa  Defensa 
de  Malta,  pp.  81-84, — Miniana,  Hist,  de  Espana,  p.  351, — Cabrera, 
Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  vi.  cap.  25, — Campana,  Filippo  Secondo,  par.  ii. 
p.  159, — Sagredo,  Monarcas  Othomanos,  p.  245, — Vertot,  Knights  of 
Malta,  vol.  ii.  p.  219,  et  seq. 

»9  "  A  todos  nos  pesava  en  el  anima  porque  aquellas  eran  fiestas  que 
Eolian  hazer  los  cavalleros  en  tal  dia,  para  honor  deste  su  santo  avo- 
gado."     Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  55. 
Philip— Vol.  II.  34 


398  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

they  were  lashed  to  planks  and  thrown  into  the  water. 
Several  of  them  drifted  to  the  opposite  shore,  where 
they  were  easily  recognized  by  their  brethren;  and 
La  Valette,  as  he  gazed  on  the  dishonored  remains  of 
his  dear  companions,  was  melted  to  tears.  But  grief 
.soon  yielded  to  feelings  of  a  sterner  nature.  He  com- 
manded the  heads  of  his  Turkish  prisoners  to  be  struck 
off  and  shot  from  the  large  guns  into  the  enemy's 
lines, — by  way  of  teaching  the  Moslems,  as  the  chron- 
icler tells  us,  a  lesson  of  humanity  !  ^ 

The  number  of  Christians  who  fell  in  this  siege 
amounted  to  about  fifteen  hundred.  Of  these  one 
hundred  and  twenty-three  were  members  of  the  order, 
and  among  them  several  of  its  most  illustrious  warriors.^' 
The  Turkish  loss  is  estimated  at  eight  thousand,  at  the 
head  of  whom  stood  Dragut,  of  more  account  than  a 
legion  of  the  common  file.  He  was  still  living,  though 
speechless,  when  the  fort  was  stormed.  He  was  roused 
from  his  lethargy  by  the  shouts  of  victory,  and  when, 
upon  turning  with  inquiring  looks  to  those  around,  he 
was  told  the  cause,  he  raised  his  eyes  to  heaven,  as  if 
in  gratitude  for  the  event,  and  expired. ^'^ 

The  Turkish  commander,  dismantling  St.  Elmo, — 
which,  indeed,  was  little  better  than  aheap  of  ruins, — 
sent  some  thirty  cannon,  that  had  lined  the  works,  as 
the  trophies  of  victory,  to  Constantinople. ^3 

30  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  58. — Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta, 
vol.  ii.  p.  220. 

31  Balbi  has  given  a  catalogue  of  the  knights  who  fell  in  the  siege, 
with  the  names  of  the  countries  to  which  they  respectively  belonged. 
Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  56. 

32  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  ii.  p.  219. 

33  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  33. 


FALL    OF  ST.  ELMO. 


399 


Thus  ended  the  memorable  siege  of  St.  Ehno,  in 
which  a  handful  of  warriors  withstood,  for  the  space 
of  a  month,  the  whole  strength  of  the  Turkish  army. 
Such  a  result,  while  it  proves  the  unconquerable  valor 
of  the  garrison,  intimates  that  the  Turks,  however 
efficient  they  may  have  been  in  field-operations,  had 
little  skill  as  engineers,  and  no  acquaintance  with  the 
true  principles  of  conducting  a  siege.  It  must  have 
been  obvious,  from  the  first,  tlmt  to  bring  the  siege  to 
a  speedy  issue  it  was  necessary  to  destroy  the  commu- 
nications of  St.  Elmo  with  the  town.  Yet  this  was 
not  attempted  till  the  arrival  of  Dragut,  who  early 
recommended  the  construction  of  a  battery  for  this 
purpose  on  some  high  land  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
Great  Port.  In  this  he  was  overruled  by  the  Turkish 
commander.  It  was  not  till  some  time  later  that  the 
line  of  investment,  at  the  corsair's  suggestion,  was 
continued  to  the  water's  edge, — and  the  fate  of  the 
fortress  was  decided. 

St.  Elm'o  fell.  But  precious  time  had  been  lost, — 
an  irreparable  loss,  as  it  proved,  to  the  besiegers ;  while 
the  place  had  maintained  so  long  and  gallant  a  resist- 
ance as  greatly  to  encourage  the  Christians,  and  in 
some  degree  to  diminish  the  confidence  of  the  Mos- 
lems. "What  will  not  the  parent  cost,"  exclaimed 
Mustapha, — alluding  to  St.  Angelo, — "v/hen  the  child 
has  cost  us  so  dear  I"^^ 

34  The  two  principal  authorities  on  whon^I  have  relied  for  the  siege 
of  Malta  are  Balbi  and  Vertot.  The  former  was  a  soldier,  who  served 
through  the  siege,  his  account  of  which,  now  not  easily  met  with,  was 
printed  shortly  afterwards,  and  in  less  than  three  years  went  into  a 
second  edition, — being  that  used  in  the  present  work.     As  Balbi  Wiis 


400  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

both  an  eye-witness  and  an  actor  on  a  theatre  so  hmited  that  nothing 
could  be  well  hidden  from  view,  and  as  he  wrote  while  events  were 
fresh  in  his  memory,  his  testimony  is  of  the  highest  value.  It  loses 
nothing  by  the  temperate,  homebred  style  in  which  the  book  is  writ- 
ten, like  that  of  a  man  anxious  only  to  tell  the  truth,  and  not  to  mag- 
nify the  cause  or  the  party  to  which  he  is  attached.  In  this  the  honest 
soldier  forms  a  contrast  to  his  more  accomplished  rival,  the  Abbe  de 
Vertot.  This  eminent  writer  was  invited  to  compose  the  history  of 
the  order,  and  its  archives  were  placed  by  the  knights  at  his  disposal 
for  this  purpose.  He  accepted  the  task ;  and  in  performing  it  he  has 
sounded  the  note  of  panegyric  with  as  hearty  a  good  will  as  if  he  had 
been  a  knight  hospitaller  himself.  This  somewhat  detracts  from  the 
value  of  a  work  which  must  be  admitted  to  rest,  in  respect  to  materials, 
on  the  soundest  historical  basis.  The  abbe's  turn  for  the  romantic 
has  probably  aided,  instead  of  hurting  him,  with  the  generality  of 
readers.  His  clear  and  sometimes  eloquent  style,  the  interest  of  his 
story,  and  the  dramatic  skill  with  which  he  brings  before  the  eye  the 
peculiar  traits  of  his  actors,  redeem,  to  some  e.xtent,  the  prolixity  of 
his  narrative,  and  have  combined  not  merely  to  commend  the  book 
to  popular  favor,  but  to  make  it  the  standard  work  on  the  subject. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

SIEGE   OF    MALTA. 

II  Borgo  invested. — Storming  of  St.  Michael. — Slaughter  of  the  Turks 
— Incessant  Cannonade. — General  Assault. — The  Turks  repulsed. — 
Perilous  Condition  of  II  Borgo. — Constancy  of  La  Valette. 

1565. 

The  strength  of  the  order  was  now  concentrated  on 
the  two  narrow  slips  of  land  which  run  out  from  the 
eastern  side  of  the  Great  Port.  Although  some  account 
of  these  places  has  been  given  to  the  re.ader,  it  will  not 
be  amiss  to  refresh  his  recollection  of  what  is  henceforth 
to  be  the  scene  of  operations. 

The  northern  peninsula,  occupied  by  the  town, — // 
JSo?-go, — and  at  the  extreme  point  by  the  castle  of  St. 
Angelo,  was  defended  by  works  stronger  and  in  better 
condition  than  the  fortifications  of  St.  Elmo.  The  care 
of  them  was  divided  among  the  different  languages, 
each  of  which  gave  its  own  name  to  the  bastion  it 
defended.  Thus,  the  Spanish  knights  were  intrusted 
with  the  bastion  of  Castile,  on  the  eastern  corner  of 
the  Peninsula, — destined  to  make  an  important  figure 
in  the  ensuing  siege. 

The  parallel  slip  of  land  was  crowned  by  the  fort  of 

St.  Michael, — a  work  of  narrower  dimensions  than  the 

castle  of  St.  Angelo, — at  the  base  of  which  might  be 

seen  a  small  gathering  of  houses,  hardly  deserving  the 

34*  ( 401 ) 


402  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

name  of  a  town.  This  peninsula  was  surrounded  by 
fortifications  scarcely  yet  completed,  on  which  the 
grand  master  La  Sangle,  who  gave  his  name  to  the 
place,  had  generously  expended  his  private  fortune. 
The  works  were  terminated,  on  the  extreme  point,  by 
a  low  bastion,  or  rather  demi-bastion,  called  the  Spur. 
The  precious  interval  gained  by  the  long  detention 
of  the  Turks  before  St.  Elmo  had  been  diligently  em- 
ployed by  La  Valette  in  putting  the  defences  of  both 
La  Sangle  and  II  Borgo  in  the  best  condition  possible 
under  the  circumstances.  In  this  good  work  all  united, 
• — men,  women,  and  children.  All  were  animated  by 
the  same  patriotic  feeling,  and  by  a  common  hatred  of 
the  infidel.  La  'Valette  ordered  the  heavy  guns  to  be 
taken  from  the  galleys  which  were  lying  at  anchor,  and 
placed  on  the  walls  of  the  fortresses.  He  directed  that 
such  provisions  as  were  in  the  hands  of  individuals 
should  be  delivered  up  for  a  fair  compensation  and 
transferred  to  the  public  magazines.'  Five  companies 
of  soldiers,  stationed  in  the  Notable  City,  in  the  inte- 
rior of  the  island,  he  now  ordered  to  II  Borgo,  where 
their  services  would  be  more  needed.  Finally,  as  there 
were  no  accommodations  for  prisoners,  who,  indeed, 
could  not  be  maintained  without  encroaching  on  the 
supplies  necessary  for  the  garrison.  La  Valette  com- 
manded that  no  prisoners  should  be  made,  but  that  all 
who  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  victors  should  be  put  to 
the  sword.*  It  was  to  be  on  both  sides  a  war  of  exter- 
mination. 

*  By  another  ordinance,  La  Valette  caused  all  the  dogs  in  La  Sangle 
and  II  Borgo  to  be  killed,  because  they  disturbed  the  garrisons  by  nighl 
and  ate  their  provisions  by  day.      Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  29, 

»  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  p.  2. 


PREPARATIONS   OF  THE  BESIEGED.       403 

At  this  juncture,  La  Valette  had  the  satisfaction  of 
receiving  a  reinforcement  from  Sicily,  which,  though 
not  large,  was  of  great  importance  in  the  present  state 
of  affairs.  The  viceroy  had  at  length  so  far  yielded  to 
the  importunities  of  the  Knights  of  St.  John  who  were 
then  at  his  court,  impatiently  waiting  for  the  means  of 
joining  their  brethren,  as  to  fit  out  a  squadron  of  four 
galleys, — two  of  his  own,  and  two  belonging  to  the 
order.  They  had  forty  knights  on  board,  and  seven 
hundred  soldiers,  excellent  troops,  drawn  chiefly  from 
the  Spanish  garrisons  in  Italy.  The  vessels  were  placed 
under  command  of  Don  Juan  de  Cardona,  who  was  in- 
structed to  return  without  attempting  to  land,  should 
he  find  St.  Elmo  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Cardona, 
who  seems  to  have  had  a  good  share  of  the  timid,  vacil- 
lating policy  of  his  superior,  fearful  of  the  Ottoman 
fleet,  stood  off  and  on  for  some  days,  without  ap- 
proaching the  island.  During  this  time  St.  Elmo  was 
taken.  Cardona,  ignorant  of  the  fact,  steered  towards 
the  south,  and  finally  anchored  off  Pietra  Negra,  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  island.  Here  one  of  the  knights 
was  permitted  to  go  on  shore  to  collect  information. 
He  there  learned  the  fate  of  St.  Elmo ;  but,  as  he  care- 
fully concealed  the  tidings,  the  rest  of  the  forces  were 
speedily  landed,  and  Cardona,  with  his  galleys,  was 
soon  on  the  way  to  Sicily. 

The  detachment  was  under  the  command  of  the 
Chevalier  de  Robles,  a  brave  soldier,  and  one  of  the 
most  illustrious  men  of  the  order.  Under  cover  of 
night,  he  passed  within  gun-shot  of  the  Turkish  lines 
without  being  discovered,  and  was  so  fortunate  as  to 
bring  his  men  in  safety  to  the  side  of  the  English  liar- 


404  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

bor  opposite  to  II  Borgo,  which  it  washes  on  the  north. 
There  he  found  boats  awaiting  his  arrival.  They  had 
been  provided  by  the  grand  master,  who  was  advised 
of  his  movements.  A  thick  fog  lay  upon  the  waters ; 
and  under  its  friendly  mantle  Robles  and  his  troops 
crossed  over  in  safety  to  the  town,  where  they  were 
welcomed  by  the  knights,  who  joyfully  greeted  the 
brave  companions  that  had  come  to  share  with  them 
the  perils  of  the  siege. ^ 

While  this  was  going  on,  Mustapha,  the  Turkish 
commander,  had  been  revolving  in  his  mind  whether 
it  were  not  possible  to  gain  his  ends  by  negotiation 
instead  of  war,  and  thus  be  spared  the  waste  of  life 
which  the  capture  of  St.  Elmo  had  cost  him.  He  flat- 
tered himself  that  La  Valette,  taking  warning  by  the 
fate  of  that  fortress,  might  be  brought  to  capitulate  on 
fair  and  honorable  terms.  He  accordingly  sent  a  mes- 
senger with  a  summons  to  the  grand  master  to  deliver 
up  the  island,  on  the  assurance  of  a  free  passage  for 
himself  and  his  followers,  with  all  their  effects,  to 
Sicily. 

The  envoy  chosen  was  a  Greek  slave, — an  old  man, 
who  had  lived  from  boyhood  in  captivity.  Under  pro- 
tection of  a  flag  of  truce,  the  slave  gained  admission 
into  St.  Angelo,  and  was  conducted  blindfold  to  the 
presence  of  the  grand  master.  He  there  delivered  his 
message.  La  Valette  calmly  listened,  but  without 
deigning  to  reply;  and  when  the  speaker  had  ended, 
the  stern  chief  ordered  him  to  be  taken  from  his  pres- 

3  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  p.  4. —  Balbi.'Verdadera  Rela- 
cion,  fol.  64. — Calderon,  Gloriosa  Defensa  de  Malta,  p.  94. — Sagredo, 
Monarcas  Othomanos,  p.  296. 


PREPARATIONS   OF  THE  BESIEGED.       405 

ence  and  instantly  hanged.  The  wretched  man  threw 
himself  at  the  feet  of  the  grand  master,  beseeching  him 
to  spare  his  life,  and  protesting  that  he  was  but  a  poor 
slave,  and  had  come,  against  his  will,  in  obedience  to 
the  commands  of  the  Turkish  general.  La  Valette, 
who  had  probably  no  intention  from  the  first  to  have 
his  order  carried  into  execution,  affected  to  relent,  de- 
claring, however,  that  should  any  other  messenger  ven- 
ture hereafter  to  insult  him  with  the  like  proposals  he 
should  not  escape  so  easily.  The  terrified  old  man 
was  then  dismissed.  As  he  left  the  presence,  he  was 
led  through  long  files  of  the  soldiery  drawn  up  in  im- 
posing array,  and  was  shown  the  strong  works  of  the 
castle  of  St.  Angelo.  "Look,"  said  one  of  the  officers, 
pointing  to  the  deep  ditch  which  surrounded  the  fort- 
ress, "there  is  all  the  room  we  can  afford  your  master; 
but  it  is  deep  enough  to  bury  him  and  his  followers!" 
The  slave,  though  a  Christian,  could  not  be  persuaded 
to  remain  and  take  his  chance  with  the  besieged. 
They  must  be  beaten  in  the  end,  he  said,  and,  when 
retaken  by  the  Turks,  his  case  would  be  worse  than 
ever.* 

There  was  now  no  alternative  for  Mustapha  but  to 
fight;  and  he  had  not  lost  a  moment  since  the  fall  of 
St.  Elmo  in  pushing  forward  his  preparations.  Trenches 
had  been  opened  on  the  heights  at  the  foot  of  Mount 
Coradin,  at  the  southern  extremity  of  the  Great  Port, 
and  continued  on  a  line  that  stretched  to  Mount  St. 

4  Calderon,  Gloriosa  Defensa  dc  Malta,  p.  91. — Vertot,  Knights  of 
Malta,  vol.  iii.  p.  3. — De  Thou,  Histoire  universelle,  torn.  v.  p.  67. — 
Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  vi.  cap.  26. — Sagredo,  Monarcas  Otho- 
manos,  p.  246. 


4o6  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

Salvador.  Where  the  soil  was  too  hard  to  be  readily 
turned  up,  the  defences  were  continued  by  a  wall  of 
stone.  Along  the  heights,  on  different  points  of  the 
line,  batteries  were  established,  and  mounted  with 
guns  of  the  heaviest  calibre.  Batteries  were  also 
raised  on  the  high  ground  which,  under  the  name  of 
Mount  Sceberras,  divides  Port  Musiette  from  the  Great 
Port,  terminating  in  the  point  of  land  crowned  by  St. 
Elmo.  A  few  cannon  were  even  planted  by  the  Turks 
on  the  ruins  of  this  castle. 

Thus  the  Christian  fortresses  were  menaced  on  every 
point ;  and,  while  the  lines  of  the  besiegers  cut  off  all 
communication  on  the  land-side,  a  detachment  of  the 
fleet,  blocking  up  the  entrance  to  the  great  port,  effec- 
tually cut  off  intercourse  by  sea.  The  investment  by 
land  and  by  sea  was  complete. 

Early  in  July  the  wide  circle  of  batteries,  mounting 
between  sixty  and  seventy  pieces  of  artillery,  opened 
its  converging  fire  on  the  fortresses,  the  towns,  and 
the  shipping,  which  lay  at  anchor  in  the  Port  of  Gal- 
leys. The  cannonade  was  returned  with  spirit  by  the 
guns  of  St.  Angelo  and  St.  Michael,  well  served  by 
men  acquainted  with  their  duty.  So  soon  as  the 
breaches  were  practicable,  Mustapha  proposed  to  begin 
by  storming  St.  Michael,  the  weaker  of  the  two  fort- 
resses ;  and  he  determined  to  make  the  assault  by  sea 
as  well  as  by  land.  It  would  not  be  possible,  however, 
to  bring  round  his  vessels  lying  in  Port  Musiette  into 
the  Great  Port  without  exposing  them  to  the  guns  of 
St.  Angelo.  He  resorted,  therefore,  to  an  expedient 
startling  enough,  but  not  new  in  the  annals  of  warfare. 
He  caused  a  large  number  of  boats   to   be  dragged 


STORMING    OF  ST.  MICHAEL.  407 

across  the  high  land  which  divides  the  two  harbors. 
This  toilsome  work  was  performed  by  his  Christian 
slaves  j  and  the  garrison  beheld  with  astonishment  the 
Turkish  flotilla  descending  the  rugged  slopes  of  the 
opposite  eminence  and  finally  launched  on  the  waters 
of  the  inland  basin.  No  less  than  eighty  boats,  some 
of  them  of  the  largest  size,  were  thus  transported  across 
the  heights. 

Having  completed  this  great  work,  Mustapha  made 
his  preparations  for  the  assault.  At  this  time  he  was 
joined  by  a  considerable  reinforcement  under  Hassem, 
the  Algerine  corsair,  who  commanded  at  the  memorable 
sieges  of  Oran  and  Mazarquivir.  Struck  with  the  small 
size  of  the  castle  of  St.  Elmo,  Hassem  intimated  his 
surprise  that  it  should  have  held  out  so  long  against  the 
Turkish  arms;  and  he  besought  Mustapha  to  intrust 
him  with  the  conduct  of  the  assault  that  was  to  be 
rnade  on  Fort  St.  Michael.  The  Turkish  general,  not 
unwilling  that  the  presumptuous  young  chief  should  him- 
self prove  the  temper  of  the  Maltese  swords,  readily  gave 
him  the  command,  and  the  day  was  fixed  for  the  attack. 

Fortunately,  at  this  time,  a  deserter,  a  man  of  eome 
consequence  in  the  Turkish  army,  crossed  over  to  II 
Borgo  and  acquainted  the  grand  master  with  the  de- 
signs of  the  enemy.  La  Sangle  was  defended  on  the 
north,  as  already  noticed,  by  a  strong  iron  chain, 
which,  stretching  across  the  Port  of  Galleys  at  its 
mouth,  would  prevent  the  approach  of  boats  in  that 
direction.  La  Valette  now  caused  a  row  of  palisades 
to  be  sunk  in  the  mud,  at  the  bottom  of  the  harbor,  in 
a  line  extending  from  the  extreme  point  of  La  Sangle 
to  the  foot  of  Mount  Coradin.      These  were  bound 


4o8  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

together  by  heavy  chains,  so  well  secured  as  to  oppose 
an  effectual  barrier  to  the  passage  of  the  Turkish  flo- 
tilla. The  length  of  this  barricade  was  not  great. 
But  it  was  a  work  of  much  difficulty, — not  the  less  so 
that  it  was  necessary  to  perform  it  in  the  night,  in 
order  to  secure  the  workmen  from  the  enemy's  guns. 
In  little  more  than  a  week  it  was  accomplished. 
Mustapha  sent  a  small  body  of  men,  excellent  swim- 
mers, armed  with  axes,  to  force  an  opening  in  the 
barrier.  They  had  done  some  mischief  to  the  work, 
when  a  party  of  Maltese,  swimming  out,  with  their 
swords  between  their  teeth,  fell  on  the  Turks,  beat 
them  off,  and  succeeded  in  restoring  the  palisades. ^ 

Early  in  the  morning,  on  the  fifteenth  of  July,  two 
cannon  in  the  Ottoman  lines,  from  opposite  sides  of 
the  Great  Port,  gave  the  signal  for  the  assault.  Hassem 
prepared  to  lead  it,  in  person,  on  the  land-side.  The 
attack  by  water  he  intrusted  to  an  Algerine  corsair,  his 
lieutenant.  Before  the  report  of  the  cannon  had  died 
away,  a  great  number  of  boats  were  seen  by  tJie  garri- 
son of  St.  Michael  putting  off  from  the  opposite  shore. 
They  were  filled  with  troops,  and  among  these,  to  judge 
from  their  dress,  were  many  persons  of  condition.  The 
account  is  given  by  the  old  soldier  so  often  quoted,  who, 
stationed  on  the  bastion  of  the  Spur,  had  a  full  view 
of  the  enemy.  It  was  a  gay  spectacle,  these  Moslem 
chiefs  in  their  rich  Oriental  costumes,  with  their  gaudy- 
colored  turbans,  and  their    loose  flowing  mantles  of 

5  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  6i,  62,  68. — Calderon,  Gloriosa 
Defensa  de  Malta,  pp.  95-100. — Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  pp. 
4-7. — Cabrera,  Filipc  Scgundo,  lib.  vi.  cap.  26. — Herrera,  Historia 
general,  lib.  xii.  cap.  7. 


STORMING    OF  ST.  MICHAEL. 


409 


crimson  or  of  cloth  of  gold  and  silver ;  the  beams  of 
the  rising  sun  glancing  on  their  polished  weapons, — 
their  bows  of  delicate  workmanship,  their  scimitars 
from  the  forges  of  Alexandria  and  Damascus,  their 
muskets  of  Fez.*  "It  was  a  beautiful  sight  to  see," 
adds  the  chronicler,  with  some  naivete,  "  if  one  could 
have  looked  on  it  without  danger  to  himself."^ 

In  advance  of  the  squadron  came  two  or  three 
boats,  bearing  persons  whose  venerable  aspect  and 
dark-colored  robes  proclaimed  them  to  be  the  re- 
ligious men  of  the  Moslems.  They  seemed  to  be 
reciting  from  a  volume  before  them,  and  muttering 
what  might  be  prayers  to  Allah, — possibly  invoking 
his  vengeance  on  the  infidel.  But  these  soon  dropped 
astern,  leaving  the  way  open  for  the  rest  of  the  flotilla, 
which  steered  for  the  palisades,  with  the  intention 
evidently  of  forcing  a  passage.  But  the  barrier  proved 
too  strong  for  their  efforts;  and,  chafed  by  the  musketry 
which  now  opened  on  them  from  the  bastion,  the 
Algerine  commander  threw  himself  into  the  water, 
which  was  somewhat  above  his  girdle,  and,  followed 
by  his  men,  advanced  boldly  towards  the  shore. 

Two  mortars  were  mounted  on  the  rampart.  But, 
through  some  mismanagement,  they  were  not  worked ; 
and  the  assailants  were  allowed  to  reach  the  foot  of  the 
bastion,  which  they  prepared  to  carry  by  escalade. 
Applying  their  ladders,  they  speedily  began  to  mount; 

fi  "  No  avia  hombre  que  no  ti-uxesse  aljuba,  el  que  menos  de  grana, 
muchos  de  tela  de  oro,  y  de  plata,  y  damasco  carmesi,  y  muy  buenas 
escopetas  de  fez,  cimitaras  de  Alexandria,  y  de  Damasco,  arcos  muy 
finos,  y  muy  ricos  turbantes."     Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  70. 

7  "  Cargadas  de  gente  muy  luzida,  vista  per  cierto  muy  linda,  sine 
fuera  tan  peligrosa."     Ibid.,  ubi  supra, 
rhilip.— Vol.  II.— s  35 


41  o  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

when  they  were  assailed  by  showers  of  stones,  hand- 
grenades,  and  combustibles  of  various  kinds;  while 
huge  fragments  of  rock  were  rolled  over  the  parapet, 
crushing  men  and  ladders  and  scattering  them  in  ruin 
below.  The  ramparts  were  covered  with  knights  and 
soldiers,  among  whom  the  stately  form  of  Antonio  de 
Zanoguerra,  the  commander  of  the  post,  was  conspicu- 
ous, towering  above  his  comrades  and  cheering  them 
on  to  the  fight.  Meantime  the  assailants,  mustering 
like  a  swarm  of  hornets  to  the  attack,  were  soon  seen 
replacing  the  broken  ladders  and  again  clambering  up 
the  walls.  The  leading  files  were  pushed  upward  by 
those  below ;  yet  scarcely  had  the  bold  adventurers 
risen  above  the  parapet  when  they  were  pierced  by  the 
pikes  of  the  soldiers  or  struck  down  by  the  swords 
and  battle-axes  of  the  knights.  At  this  crisis,  a  spark 
unfortunately  falling  into  the  magazine  of  combusti- 
bles, it  took  fire,  and  blew  up  with  a  terrific  explosion, 
killing  or  maiming  numbers  of  the  garrison,  and  rolling 
volumes  of  blinding  smoke  along  the  bastion*.  The 
besiegers  profited  by  the  confusion  to  gain  a  footing  on 
the  ramparts ;  and,  when  the  clouds  of  vapor  began  to 
dissipate,  the  garrison  were  astonished  to  find  their 
enemies  at  their  side,  and  a  number  of  small  banners, 
such  as  the  Turks  usually  bore  into  the  fight,  planted 
on  the  walls.  The  contest  now  raged  fiercer  than  ever, 
as  the  parties  fought  on  more  equal  terms, — the  Mussul- 
mans smarting  under  their  wounds,  and  the  Christians 
fired  with  the  recollection  of  St.  Elmo  and  the  desire 
of  avenging  their  slaughtered  brethren.  The  struggle 
continued  long  after  the  sun,  rising  high  in  the  heavens, 
poured  down  a  flood  of  heat  on  the  combatants ;  and 


STORMING    OF  ST.  MICHAEL.  411 

the  garrison,  pressed  by  superior  numbers,  weary,  and 
faint  with  wounds,  were  hardly  able  to  keep  their  foot- 
ing on  the  slippery  ground,  saturated  with  their  own 
blood  and  that  of  their  enemies.  Still  the  cheering 
battle-cry  of  St.  John  rose  in  the  air,  and  their  brave 
leader,  Zanoguerra,  at  the  head  of  his  knights,  was  to 
be  seen  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight.  There  too  was 
Brother  Robert,  an  ecclesiastic  of  the  order,  with  a 
sword  in  one  hand  and  a  crucifix  in  the  other,  though 
wounded  himself,  rushing  among  the  ranks  and  ex- 
horting the  men  to  "fight  for  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  to  die  in  its  defence."^ 

At  this  crisis  the  commander,  Zanoguerra,  though 
clad  in  armor  of  proof,  was  hit  by  a  random  musket- 
shot,  which  stretched  him  lifeless  on  the  rampart.  At 
his  fall  the  besiegers  set  up  a  shout  of  triumph,  and 
redoubled  their  efforts.  It  would  now  have  gone  hard 
with  the  garrison  had  it  not  been  for  a  timely  reinforce- 
ment which  arrived  from  II  Borgo.  It  was  sent  by 
La  Valette,  who  had  learned  the  perilous  state  of  the 
bastion.  He  had,  not  long  before  this,  caused  a  float- 
ing bridge  to  be  laid  across  the  Port  of  Galleys, — thus 
connecting  the  two  peninsulas  with  each  other  and 
affording  a  much  readier  means  of  communication  than 
before  existed. 

While  this  was  going  on,  a  powerful  reinforcement 
was  on  its  way  to  the  support  of  the  assailants.  Ten 
boats  of  the  largest  size,  having  a  thousand  janizaries 

8  "  Nuestro  predicador  fray  Ruberto,  el  qual  en  todo  el  assalto  yva 
por  todas  las  postas  con  un  crucifixo  en  la  una  mano,  y  la  espada  en 
la  otra :  animandonos  a  bien  moiir,  y  pelear  por  la  fe  de  lesu  Christo  : 
y  fue  herido  este  dia  su  paternidad."  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion, 
fol.  73- 


412 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


on  board,  were  seen  advancing  across  the  Great  Harbor 
from  the  opposite  shore.  Taking  warning  by  the  fate 
of  their  countrymen,  they  avoided  the  palisades,  and, 
pursuing  a  more  northerly  course,  stood  for  the  extreme 
point  of  the  Spur.  By  so  doing  they  exposed  them- 
selves to  the  fire  of  a  battery  in  St.  Angelo,  sunk  down 
almost  to  the  water's  level.  It  was  this  depressed 
condition  of  the  work  that  secured  it  from  the  notice 
of  the  Turks.  The  battery,  mounted  with  five  guns, 
was  commanded  by  the  Chevalier  de  Guiral,  who  coolly 
waited  until  the  enemy  had  come  within  range  of  his 
shot,  when  he  gave  the  word  to  fire.  The  pieces  were 
loaded  with  heavy  balls,  and  with  bags  filled  with  chain 
and  bits  of  iron.  The  effect  of  the  discharge  was 
terrible.  Nine  of  the  barges  were  shattered  to  pieces, 
and  immediately  sank.'  The  water  was  covered  with 
the  splinters  of  the  vessels,  with  mutilated  trunks,  dis- 
severed limbs,  fragments  of  clothes,  and  quantities  of 
provisions;  for  the  enemy  came  prepared  to  take  up 
their  quarters  permanently  in  the  fortress.  Amidst  the 
dismal  wreck  a  few  wretches  were  to  be  seen  struggling 
with  the  waves  and  calling  on  their  comrades  for  help. 
But  those  in  the  surviving  boat,  when  they  had  recov- 
ered from  the  shock  of  the  explosion,  had  no  mind  to 
remain  longer  in  so  perilous  a  position,  but  made  the 
best  of  their  way  back  to  the  shore,  leaving  their  com- 
panions to  their  fate.  Day  after  day  the  waves  threw 
upon  the  strand  the  corpses  of  the  drowned  men ;  and 
the  Maltese  divers  long  continued  to  drag  up  from  the 

9  "  Echo  nueve  barcas  delas  mayores  a  fondo  que  no  sc  salvo  nin- 
guno,  y  auria  en  estas  barcas  ochocicntos  Turcos."  Balbi,  Verdadera 
Relacion,  fol.  72. 


SLAUGHTER    OF  THE    TURKS.  413 

bottom  rich  articles  of  wearing-apparel,  ornaments, 
and  even  purses  of  money,  which  had  been  upon  the 
persons  of  the  janizaries.  Eight  hundred  are  said  to 
have  perished  by  this  disaster,  which  may,  not  improb- 
ably, have  decided  the  fate  of  the  fortress;  for  the 
strength  of  the  reinforcement  would  have  been  more 
than  a  match  for  that  sent  by  La  Valette  to  the  support 
of  the  garrison.'" 

Meanwhile,  the  succors  detached  by  the  grand  master 
had  no  sooner  entered  the  bastion  than,  seeing  their 
brethren  so  hard  beset,  and  the  Moslem  flags  planted 
along  the  parapet,  they  cried  their  war-cry  and  fell 
furiously  on  the  enemy.  In  this  they  were  well  sup- 
ported by  the  garrison,  who  gathered  strength  at  the 
sight  of  the  reinforcement.  The  Turks,  now  pressed 
on  all  sides,  gave  way.  Some  succeeded  in  making 
their  escape  by  the  ladders,  as  they  had  entered. 
Others  were  hurled  down  on  the  rocks  below.  Most, 
turning  on  their  assailants,  fell  fighting  on  the  rampart 
which  they  had  so  nearly  won.  Those  who  escaped 
hurried  to  the  shore,  hoping  to  gain  the  boats,  which 
lay  off  at  some  distance ;  when  a  detachment,  sallying 
from  the  bastion,  intercepted  their  flight.  Thus  at  bay, 
they  had  no  alternative  but  to  fight.  But  their  spirit 
was  gone ;  and  they  were  easily  hewed  down  by  their 
pursuers.  Some,  throwing  themselves  on  their  knees, 
piteously  begged  for  mercy.     *'  Such  mercy,"  shouted 

1°  This  seems  to  have  been  Balbi's  opinion:  "En  conclusion,  la 
casa  mata  del  comendador  Guiral  fue  este  dia  a  juyzio  de  todos  la 
salvacion  de  la  Isla,  porque  si  las  barcas  ya  dichas  echavan  su  gete  en 
tierra,  no  les  pudieranios  resistir  en  ninguna  manera."  Verdadera 
Relacion,  fol.  73. 

35* 


414 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


the  victors,  "as  you  showed  at  St.  Elmo  !"  "  and  buried 
their  daggers  in  their  bodies. 

While  this  bloody  work  was  going  on  below,  the 
knights  and  soldiers  gathered  on  the  exposed  points 
of  the  bastion  above  presented  an  obvious  mark  to  the 
Turkish  guns  across  the  water,  which  had  not  been 
worked  during  the  assault,  for  fear  of  injuring  the 
assailants.  Now  that  the  Turks  had  vanished  from 
the  ramparts,  some  heavy  shot  were  thrown  amonf  the 
Christians,  with  fatal  effect.  Among  others  who  were 
slain  was  Frederick  de  Toledo,  a  son  of  the  viceroy  of 
Sicily.  He  was  a  young  knight  of  great  promise,  and 
was  under  the  especial  care  of  the  grand  master,  who 
kept  him  constantly  near  his  person.  But  when  the 
generous  youth  learned  the  extremity  to  which  his 
brethren  in  La  Sangle  were  reduced,  he  secretly  joined 
the  reinforcement  which  was  going  to  their  relief,  and 
did  his  duty  like  a  good  knight  in  the  combat  which 
followed.  While  on  the  rampart,  he  was  struck  down 
by  a  cannon-shot ;  and  a  splinter  from  his  cuirass  mor- 
tally wounded  a  comrade  to  whoiii  he  was  speaking  at 
the  time. 

While  the  fight  was  thus  going  on  at  the  Spur,  Hassem 
was  storming  the  breach  of  Fort  St.  Michael,  on  the 
opposite  quarter.  The  storming-party,  consisting  of 
both  Moors  and  Turks,  rushed  to  the  assault  with  their 
usual  intrepidity.  But  they  found  a  very  different  en- 
emy from  the  spectral  forms  which,  wasted  by  toil  and 
suffering,  had  opposed  so  ineffectual  a  resistance  in  the 
last  days  of  St.  Elmo.  In  vain  did  the  rushing  tide 
of  assailants  endeavor  to  force  an  opening  through  the 

"  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  p.  13. 


\ 


SLAUGHTER    OF  THE    TURKS. 


415 


Stern  array  of  warriors,  which,  like  a  wall  of  iron,  now 
filled  up  the  breach.  Recoiling  in  confusion,  the  lead- 
ing files  fell  back  upon  the  rear,  and  all  was  disorder. 
But  Hassem  soon  reformed  his  ranks,  and  again  led 
them  to  the  charge.  Again  they  were  repulsed  with 
loss ;  but,  as  fresh  troops  came  to  their  aid,  the  little 
garrison  must  have  been  borne  down  by  numbers,  had 
not  their  comrades,  flushed  with  their  recent  victory  at 
the  bastion,  hurried  to  their  support,  and,  sweeping 
like  a  whirlwind  through  the  breach,  driven  the  enemy 
with  dreadful  carnage  along  the  slope  and  compelled 
him  to  take  refuge  in  his  trenches. 

Thus  ended  the  first  assault  of  the  besiegers  since  the 
fall  of  St.  Elmo.  The  success  of  the  Christians  was 
complete.  Between  three  and  four  thousand  Mussul- 
mans, including  those  who  were  drowned, — according 
to  the  Maltese  statements, — fell  in  the  two  attacks  on 
the  fortress  and  the  bastion.  But  the  arithmetic  of  an 
enemy  is  not  apt  to  be  exact."  The  loss  of  the  Chris- 
tians did  not  exceed  two  hundred.  Even  this  was  a 
heavy  loss  to  the  besieged,  and  included  some  of  their 
best  knights,  to  say  nothing  of  others  disabled  by  their 
wounds.  Still,  it  was  a  signal  victory;  and  its  influence 
was  felt  in  raising  the  spirits  of  the  besieged  and  in 
inspiring  them  with  confidence.  La  A^'alette  was  careful 
to  cherish  these  feelings.  The  knights,  followed  by  the 
whole  population  of  II  Borgo,  went  in  solemn  proces- 
sion to  the  great  church  of  St.  Lawrence,  where  Te 

"  Compare  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  p.  13,  and  Balbi 
Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  73. — The  latter  chronicler,  for  a  wonder, 
raises  the  sum  total  of  the  killed  to  a  somewhat  higher  figure  than 
the  abbe, — calling  it  full  four  thousand. 


41 6  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

Deum  was  chanted,  while  the  colors  taken  from  the  in- 
fidel were  suspended  from  the  walls  as  glorious  trophies 
of  the  victory. '3 

Mustapha  now  found  that  the  spirit  of  the  besieged, 
far  from  being  broken  by  their  late  reverses,  was  higher 
than  ever,  as  their  resources  were  greater,  and  their 
fortifications  stronger,  than  those  of  St.  Elmo.  He 
saw  the  necessity  of  proceeding  with  greater  caution. 
He  resolved  to  level  the  defences  of  the  Christians  with 
the  ground,  and  then,  combining  the  whole  strength  of 
his  forces,  make  simultaneous  assaults  on  II  Borgo  and 
St.  Michael.  His  first  step  was  to  continue  his  line  of 
intrenchments  below  St.  Salvador  to  the  water's  edge, 
and  thus  cut  off  the  enemy's  communication  with  the 
opposite  side  of  the  English  Port,  by  means  of  which 
the  late  reinforcement  from  Sicily  had  reached  him. 
He  further  strengthened  the  battery  on  St.  Salvador, 
arming  it  with  sixteen  guns, — two  of  them  of  such 
enormous  calibre  as  to  throw  stone  bullets  of  three 
hundred  pounds'  weight. 

From  this  ponderous  battery  he  now  opened  a  crush- 
ing fire  on  the  neighboring  bastion  of  Castile,  and  on 
the  quarter  of  II  Borgo  lying  nearest  to  it.  The  storm 
of  marble  and  metal  that  fell  upon  the  houses,  though 
these  were  built  of  stone,  soon  laid  many  of  them  in 

'3  The  particulars  of  the  assaults  on  St.  Michael  and  the  Spur  are 
given  by  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  61-74 1  &i^d  with  more  or 
less  inaccuracy  by  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  pp.  8-13  ;  Calde- 
ron,  Gloriosa  Defensa  de  Malta,  pp.  110-116;  De  Thou,  Histoire 
universelle,  torn.  v.  pp.  72-74;  Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  v.  cap. 
26;  Herrera,  Historia  general,  lib,  xii.  cap.  7;  Sagredo,  Monarcas 
Othomanos,  p.  246;  Campana,  Vita  di  Filippo  Secondo,  torn.  ii.  p. 
160. 


INCESSANT  CANNONADE.  417 

ruins ;  and  the  shot,  sweeping  the  streets,  killed  num- 
bers of  the  inhabitants,  including  women  and  children. 
La  Valette  caused  barriers  of  solid  masonry  to  be  raised 
across  the  streets  for  the  protection  of  the  citizens.  As 
this  was  a  work  of  great  danger,  he  put  his  slaves  upon 
it,  trusting,  too,  that  the  enemy  might  be  induced  to 
mitigate  his  fire  from  tenderness  for  the  lives  of  his 
Moslem  brethren.  But  in  such  an  expectation  he  greatly 
erred.  More  than  five  hundred  slaves  fell  under  the 
incessant  volleys  of  the  besiegers ;  and  it  was  only  by 
the  most  severe,  indeed  cruel  treatment,  that  these  un- 
fortunate beings  could  be  made  to  resume  their  labors.'* 

La  Valette  at  this  time,  in  order  to  protect  the  town 
against  assault  on  the  side  of  the  English  Port,  caused  a 
number  of  vessels  laden  with  heavy  stones  to  be  sunk 
not  far  from  shore.  They  were  further  secured  by 
anchors  bound  to  one  another  with  chains,  forming 
altogether  an  impenetrable  barrier  against  any  approach 
by  water. 

The  inhabitants  of  II  Borgo,  as  well  as  the  soldiers, 
were  now  active  in  preparations  for  defence.  Some 
untwisted  large  ropes  and  cables  to  get  materials  for 
making  bags  to  serve  as  gabions.  Some  were  busy 
with  manufacturing  different  sorts  of  fireworks,  much 
relied  on  as  a  means  of  defence  by  the  besieged.  Others 
were  employed  in  breaking  up  the  large  stones  from  the 

'4  Cruel  indeed,  according  to  the  report  of  Balbi,  who  tells  us  that 
the  Christians  cut  off  the  ears  of  the  more  refractory,  and  even  put 
some  of  them  to  death, — pour  encottrager  les  autres  :  "  Han  muerto 
en  esta  Jornada  al  trabajo  mas  de  quinientos  esclavos ;  mas  los  pobres 
llegaron  atal  de  puros  cansados  y  acabados  del  trabajo  continuo,  que 
no  podian  estar  en  pie,  y  se  dexavan  cortar  las  orejas  y  matar,  por  no 
poder  trabajar  mas."     Balbi,  Verdadera  Rolacion,  fol.  66. 


41 8  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

ruined  buildings  into  smaller  ones,  which  proved  effi- 
cient missiles  when  hurled  on  the  heads  of  the  assailants 
below.  But  the  greatest  and  most  incessant  labor  was 
that  of  repairing  the  breaches,  or  of  constructing 
retrenchments  to  defend  them.  The  sound  of  the 
hammer  and  the  saw  was  everywhere  to  be  heard.  The 
fires  of  the  forges  were  never  suffered  to  go  out.  The 
hum  of  labor  was  as  unintermitting  throughout  the  city 
as  in  the  season  of  peace  ;  but  with  a  very  different 
end. '5 

Over  all  these  labors  the  grand  master  exercised  a 
careful  superintendence.  He  was  always  on  the  spot 
where  his  presence  was  needed.  His  eye  seemed  never 
to  slumber.  He  performed  many  of  the  duties  of  a 
soldier,  as  well  as  of  a  commander.  He  made  the 
rounds  constantly  in  the  night,  to  see  that  all  was  well 
and  that  the  sentinels  were  at  their  posts.  On  these 
occasions  he  freely  exposed  himself  to  danger,  showing 
a  carelessness  of  his  own  safety  that  called  forth  more 
than  once  the  remonstrances  of  his  brethren.  He  was 
indeed  watchful  over  all,  says  the  old  chronicler  who 
witnessed  it;  showing  no  sign  of  apprehension  in  his 
valiant  countenance,  but  by  his  noble  presence  giving 
heart  and  animation  to  his  followers.'* 

Yet  the  stoutest  heart  which  witnessed  the  scene 
might  well  have  thrilled  with  apprehension.  Far  as 
the  eye  could  reach,  the  lines  of  the  Moslem  army 

'5  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  67,  'j'j. — Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta, 
vol.  iii.  p.  18. — Campana,  Vita  di  Filippo  Secondo,  torn.  ii.  p.  160. 

•*  "  En  fin  era  in  todo  diligente,  vigilante  y  animoso,  y  jamas  se 
conoscio  en  su  valeroso  semblante  ninguna  seiial  de  tenior,  antes  con 
su  prcscncia  dava  esfuer90  y  animo  k  sus  cavalleros  y  soldados." 
Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  77. 


CONDUCT  OF  THE    VICEROY. 


419 


Stretched  over  hill  and  valley ;  while  a  deafening  roar 
of  artillery  from  fourteen  batteries  shook  the  solid 
earth,  and,  borne  across  the  waters  for  more  than  a 
hundred  miles,  sounded  to  the  inhabitants  of  Syracuse 
and  Catania  like  the  mutterings  of  distant  thunder.'^ 
In  the  midst  of  this  turmoil,  and  encompassed  by  the 
glittering  lines  of  the  besiegers,  the  two  Christian 
fortresses  might  be  dimly  discerned  amidst  volumes 
of  fire  and  smoke,  which,  rolling  darkly  round  their 
summits,  almost  hid  from  view  the  banner  of  St.  John, 
proudly  waving  in  the  breeze,  as  in  defiance  of  the 
enemy. 

But  the  situation  of  the  garrison,  as  the  works  crum- 
bled imder  the  stroke  of  the  bullet,  became  every  day 
more  critical.  La  Valette  contrived  to  send  information 
of  it  to  the  viceroy  of  Sicily,  urging  him  to  delay  his 
coming  no  longer,  if  he  would  save  the  island.  But, 
strange  to  say,  such  w^as  the  timid  policy  that  had  crept 
into  the  viceroy's  councils  that  it  was  seriously  dis- 
cussed whether  it  was  expedient  to  send  aid  at  all  to  the 
Knights  of  Malta  i  Some  insisted  that  there  was  no 
obligation  on  Spain  to  take  any  part  in  the  quarrel,  and 
that  the  knights  should  be  left  to  fight  out  the  battle 
with  the  Turks  in  Malta,  as  they  had  before  done  in 
Rhodes.  Others  remonstrated  against  this,  declaring 
it  would  be  an  eternal  blot  on  the  scutcheon  of  Castile 
if  she  should  desert  in  their  need  the  brave  chivalry 

'7  "'  Luego  que  todas  estas  baterias  comenijaron  de  batir,  y  todas  en 
un  tiempo,  era  tanto  el  ruydo  y  temblor  que  parecia  quererse  acabar 
el  mudo,  y  puedese  bien  creer  que  el  ruydo  fuesse  tal,  pues  se  sentia 
muy  claramente  dende  Carag09a,  y  dende  Catania,  que  ay  ciento  y 
veynte  millas  de  Malta  a  estas  dos  ciudades."  Balbi,  Verdadera 
Relacion,  fol.  78. 


420 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


who  for  so  many  years  had  been  fighting  the  battles  of 
Christendom.  The  king  of  Spain,  in  particular,  as  the 
feudatory  sovereign  of  the  order,  was  bound  to  protect 
the  island  from  the  Turks,  who  moreover,  once  in  pos- 
session of  it,  would  prove  the  most  terrible  scourge 
that  ever  fell  on  the  commerce  of  the  Mediterranean. 
The  more  generous,  happily  the  more  politic,  counsel 
prevailed ;  and  the  viceroy  contrived  to  convey  an 
assurance  to  the  grand  m.aster  that  if  he  could  hold  out 
till  the  end  of  the  following  month  he  would  come  with 
sixteen  thousand  men  to  his  relief.'^ 

But  this  was  a  long  period  for  men  in  extremity  to 
wait.  La  Valette  saw  with  grief  how  much  deceived  he 
had  been  in  thus  leaning  on  the  viceroy.  He  deter- 
mined to  disappoint  his  brethren  no  longer  by  holding 
out  delusive  promises  of  succor.  "The  only  succor  to 
be  relied  on,"  he  said,  "was  that  of  Almighty  God. 
He  who  has  hitherto  preserved  his  children  from 
danger  will  not  now  abandon  them."'^  La  Valette 
reminded  his  followers  that  they  were  the  soldiers 
of  Heaven,  fighting  for  the  Faith,  for  liberty  and 
life.  "Should  the  enemy  prevail,"  he  added,  with  a 
politic  suggestion,  "the  Christians  could  expect  no 
better  fate  than  that  of  their  comrades  in  St.  Elmo." 
The  grand  master's  admonition  was  not  lost  upon  the 
soldiers.  "Everyman  of  us,"  says  Balbi,  "resolved 
to  die  rather  than  surrender,  and  to  sell  his  life  as 

^  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iil.  pp.  21,  22. 

»9  "  Dixo  publicamente,  que  el  no  aguardava  socorro  ya  sino  era  del 
omnipotente  Dies  cl  qual  era  el  soccorro  verdadero,  y  el  que  hasta 
entonces  nos  havia  librado,  y  que  ni  mas  ni  menos  nos  libraria  por  el 
avenir,  delas  manos  dclos  encmigos  de  su  santa  fee."  Balbi,  Verdadera 
Relacion,  fol.  81. 


GENERAL  ASSAULT.  421 

dearly  as  possible.  From  that  hour  no  man  talked  of 
succors."*" 

One  of  those  spiritual  weapons  from  the  papal  arm- 
ory, which  have  sometimes  proved  of  singular  efficacy 
in  times  of  need,  came  now  most  seasonably  to  the  aid 
of  La  Valette.  A  bull  of  Pius  the  Fourth  granted 
plenary  indulgence  for  all  the  sins  which  had  been 
committed  by  those  engaged  in  this  holy  war  against 
the  Moslems.  "There  were  few,"  says  the  chronicler, 
"either  women  or  men,  old  enough  to  appreciate  it, 
who  did  not  strive  to  merit  this  grace  by  most  earnest 
devotion  to  the  cause,  and  who  did  not  have  entire 
faith  that  all  who  died  in  the  good  work  would  be  at 
once  received  into  glory.  "^' 

More  than  two  weeks  had  elapsed  since  the  attempt, 
so  disastrous  to  the  Turks,  on  the  fortress  of  St.  Mi- 
chael. During  this  time  they  had  kept  up  an  uninter- 
mitting  fire  on  the  Christian  fortifications  \  and  the 
effect  was  visible  in  more  than  one  fearful  gap,  which 
invited  the  assault  of  the  enemy.  The  second  of  Au- 
gust was  accordingly  fixed  on  as  the  day  for  a  general 
attack,  to  be  made  on  both  Fort  St.  Michael  and  on 
the  bastion  of  Castile,  which,  situated  at  the  head  of 
the  English  Port,  eastward  of  II  Borgo,  flanked  the  line 
of  defence  on  that  quarter.  Mustapha  was  to  conduct 
in  person  the  operations  against  the  fort ;  the  assault 

^  "  Esta  habla  del  gran  Macstre  luego  fue  divulgada,  y  asi  toda  la 
gente  se  determino  de  primero  morir  que  venir  a  manos  de  turcos 
vivos,  pero  tainbien  se  determino  de  vender  muy  bien  sus  vidas,  y  asi 
ya  no  se  tratava  de  socorro."     Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion.ubi  supra. 

"  "  No  quedo  hombre  ni  muger  de  edad  para  ello  que  no  lo  ganasse 
con  devocion  grandissima,  y  con  muy  firme  esperan<;a  y  fe  de  yr  ala 
gloria,  muriendo  en  la  Jornada."     Ibid.,  fol.  71. 
Philip— Vol.  II.  36 


422  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

on  the  bastion  he  intrusted  to  Piali ; — a  division  of  the 
command  by  which  the  ambition  of  the  rival  chiefs 
would  be  roused  to  the  utmost. 

Fortunately,  La  Valette  obtained  notice,  through 
some  deserters,  of  the  plans  of  the  Turkish  command- 
ers, and  made  his  preparations  accordingly.  On  the 
morning  of  the  second,  Piali' s  men,  at  the  appointed 
signal,  moved  briskly  forward  to  the  assault.  They 
soon  crossed  the  ditch,  but  partially  filled  with  the 
ruins  of  the  rampart,  scaled  the  ascent  in  face  of  a 
sharp  fire  of  musketry,  and  stood  at  length,  with  ranks 
somewhat  shattered,  on  the  summit  of  the  breach. 
But  here  they  were  opposed  by  retrenchments  within, 
thrown  up  by  the  besieged,  from  behind  which  they 
now  poured  such  heavy  volleys  among  the  assailants  as 
staggered  the  front  of  the  column  and  compelled  it  to 
fall  back  some  paces  in  the  rear.  Here  it  was  en- 
countered by  those  pushing  forward  from  below;  and 
some  confusion  ensued.  This  was  increased  by  the 
vigor  with  which  the  garrison  now  plied  their  musketry 
from  the  ramparts,  hurling  down  at  the  same  time 
heavy  logs,  hand-grenades,  and  torrents  of  scalding 
pitch  on  the  heads  of  the  assailing  column,  which, 
blinded  and  staggering  under  the  shock,  reeled  to  and 
fro  like  a  drunken  man.  To  add  to  their  distress,  the 
feet  of  the  soldiers  were  torn  and  entangled  among  the 
spikes  which  had  been  thickly  set  in  the  ruins  of  the 
breach  by  the  besieged.  Woe  to  him  who  fell !  His 
writhing  body  was  soon  trampled  under  the  press.  In 
vain  the  Moslem  chiefs  endeavored  to  restore  order. 
Their  voices  were  lost  in  the  wild  uproar  that  raged 
dround.   At  this  crisis  the  knights,  charging  at  the  head 


GENERAL  ASSAULT. 


423 


of  their  followers,  cleared  the  breach,  and  drove  the 
enemy  with  loss  into  his  trenches. 

There  the  broken  column  soon  reformed,  and, 
strengthened  by  fresh  troops,  was  again  brought  to  the 
attack.  But  this  gave  a  respite  to  the  garrison,  which 
La  Valette  improved  by  causing  refreshments  to  be 
served  to  the  soldiers.  By  his  provident  care,  skins 
containing  wine  and  water,  Avith  rations  of  bread,  were 
placed  near  the  points  of  attack,  to  be  distributed 
among  the  men.*^  The  garrison,  thus  strengthened, 
were  enabled  to  meet  the  additional  forces  brought 
against  them  by  the  enemy;  and  the  refreshments  on 
the  one  side  were  made,  in  some  sort,  to  counterbal- 
ance the  reinforcements  on  the  other.  Vessels  filled 
with  salt  and  water  were  also  at  hand,  to  bathe  the 
wounds  of  such  as  were  injured  by  the  fireworks. 
"Without  these  various  precautions,"  says  the  chron- 
icler, "it  would  have  been  impossible  for  so  few  men 
as  we  were  to  keep  our  ground  against  such  a  host  as 
now  assailed  us  on  every  quarter."  '^ 

Again  and  again  the  discomfited  Turks  gathered 
strength  for  a  new  assault,  and  as  often  they  Avere  re- 
pulsed with  the  same  loss  as  before, — till  Piali  drew 
off  his  dispirited  legions,  and  abandoned  all  further 
attempts  for  that  day. 

It  fared  no  better  on  the  other  quarter,  where  the 

=*  "Tenia  mandado,  que  en  todos  los  dias  de  assalto  se  llevassen 
por  todas  las  postas  adonde  se  peleasse,  muchos  buyvelos  de  vino 
aguado,  y  pan  para  refrescar  sii  gente,  pues  de  gente  no  podia." 
Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  91. 

'^  "  Si  todas  estas  buenas  ordenes  no  uviera,  no  bastaran  fuer9as 
hiimanas  para  resistir  a  tanta  furia  pertinacia,  principalmete  siendo 
nosotros  tan  pocos,  y  ellos  tantos."     Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


424 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


besiegers,  under  the  eye  of  the  commander-in-chief, 
were  storming  the  fortress  of  St.  Michael.  On  every 
point  the  stout-hearted  chivalry  of  St.  John  were  vic- 
torious.    But  victory  was  bought  at  a  heavy  price. 

The  Turks  returned  to  the  attack  on  the  day  follow- 
ing, and  on  each  succeeding  day.  It  was  evidently 
their  purpose  to  profit  by  their  superior  numbers  to 
harass  the  besieged  and  reduce  them  to  a  state  of  ex- 
haustion. One  of  these  assaults  was  near  being  attended 
with  fatal  consequences. 

A  mine  which  ran  under  the  bastion  of  Castile  was 
sprung,  and  brought  down  a  wide  extent  of  the  ram- 
part. The  enemy,  prepared  for  the  event,  mounting 
the  smoking  ruins,  poured  through  the  undefended 
breach, — or  defended  only  by  a  handful  of  the  garri- 
son, who  were  taken  unawares.  The  next  minute,  the 
great  standard  of  the  Ottomans  was  planted  on  the 
walls.  The  alarm  was  raised.  In  a  fev/  moments  the 
enemy  would  have  been  in  the  heart  of  the  town.  An 
ecclesiastic  of  the  order,  Brother  William  by  name, 
terrified  at  the  sight,  made  all  haste  to  the  grand 
master,  then  at  his  usual  station  in  the  public  square. 
Rushing  into  his  presence,  the  priest  called  on  him  to 
take  refuge,  while  he  could,  in  the  castle  of  St.  An- 
gelo,  as  the  enemy  had  broken  into  the  town.  But  the 
dauntless  chief,  snatching  up  his  pike,  with  no  other 
protection  than  his  helmet,  and  calling  out  to  those 
around  him,  ''Now  is  the  time!  let  us  die  together !"=^ 
hurried  to  the  scene  of  action,  where,  rallying  his  fol- 

24  "El  gran  Maestre  sin  mudarse,  ni  alterarse  de  su  semblante 
valeroso,  dixo,  Vamos  a  morir  alia  todos  cavalleros,  q  oy  es  el  dia." 
Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  90. 


THE    TURKS  REPULSED.  425 

lowers,  he  fell  furiously  on  the  enemy.  A  sharp  struggle 
ensued.  More  than  one  knight  was  struck  down  by  La 
Valette's  side.  He  himself  was  wounded  in  the  leg  by 
the  splinter  of  a  hand-grenade.  The  alarm-bell  of  the 
city  rang  violently.  The  cry  was  raised  that  the  grand 
master  was  in  danger.  Knights,  soldiers,  and  towns- 
men came  rushing  to  the  spot.  Even  the  sick  sprang 
from  their  beds  and  made  such  haste  as  they  could  to  the 
rescue.  The  Moslems,  pressed  on  all  sides,  and  shaken 
by  the  resolute  charge,  fell  back  slowly  on  the  breach. 

The  cavaliers  would  now  fain  have  persuaded  the 
grand  master,  who  was  still  standing  among  a  heap  of 
the  slain,  to  retire  to  some  place  of  safety  and  leave  the 
issue  of  the  battle  to  his  companions.  But,  fixing  his 
eye  on  the  Ottoman  standard,  still  floating  above  the 
walls,  he  mournfully  shook  his  head,  in  token  of  his 
resolution  to  remain.  The  garrison,  spurred  on  by 
shame  and  indignation,  again  charged  the  Moslems, 
with  greater  fury  than  before.  The  colors,  wrenched 
from  the  ramparts,  were  torn  to  shreds  in  the  struggle. 
The  Christians  prevailed ;  and  the  Turks,  quailing 
before  their  invincible  spirit,  were  compelled,  after  a 
long  and  bloody  contest,  to  abandon  the  works  they 
had  so  nearly  won. 

Still  the  grand  master,  far  from  retiring,  took  up 
his  quarters  for  the  night  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
breach.  He  had  no  doubt  that  the  enemy  would  re- 
turn under  cover  of  the  darkness  and  renew  the  assault 
before  the  garrison  had  time  to  throw  up  retrench- 
ments. It  was  in  vain  his  companions  besought  him  to 
withdraw,  to  leave  the  fight  to  them,  and  not  to  risk  a 
life  so  precious  to  the  community.     "And  how  can  an 


426  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

old  man  like  me,"  he  said,  "end  his  life  more  glo- 
riously than  when  surrounded  by  his  brethren  and 
fighting  the  battles  of  the  Cross P''''^ 

La  Valette  was  right  in  his  conjecture.  No  sooner 
had  the  darkness  fallen  than  the  Turkish  host,  again 
under  arms,  came  surging  on  across  the  ruins  of  the 
rampart  towards  the  breach.  But  it  was  not  under 
cover  of  the  darkness ;  for  the  whole  bay  was  illumined 
by  the  incessant  flash  of  artillery,  by  the  blaze  of  com- 
bustibles, and  the  fiery  track  of  the  missiles  darting 
through  the  air.  Thus  the  combat  was  carried  on  as 
by  the  light  of  day.  The  garrison,  prepared  for  the 
attack,  renewed  the  scenes  of  the  morning,  and  again 
beat  off  the  assailants,  who,  broken  and  dispirited, 
could  not  be  roused,  even  by  the  blows  of  their  officers, 
to  return  to  the  assault.** 

On  the  following  morning.  La  Valette  caused  Te 
Deum  to  be  sung  in  the  church  of  St.  Lawrence,  and 
tjianks  to  be  offered  at  the  throne  of  grace  for  their 
deliverance.  And  if  the  ceremonies  were  not  con- 
ducted with  the  accustomed  pomp  of  the  order  of  St. 
John,  they  were  at  least  accompanied,  says  the  chron- 

25  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  p.  24. 

=*  Vertot  speaks  of  this  last  attack  as  having  been  made  on  the 
eighteenth  of  August.  His  chronology  may  be  corrected  by  that  of 
Balbi,  whose  narrative,  taking  the  form  of  a  diary,  in  which  the  trans- 
actions of  each  day  are  separately  noted,  bears  the  stamp  of  much 
greater  accuracy.  Balbi  gives  the  seventh  of  Augfvist  as  the  date. — 
For  the  preceding  pages  see  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  89-93, — 
Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  pp.  18-24, — Calderon,  Gloriosa 
Defensa  de  Malta,  pp.  146-150, — De  Thou,  Histoire  universelle,  tom. 
V.  p.  83,  et  seq., — Cabrera,  Filipe  Scgundo,  lib.  vi.  cap.  27, — Campana, 
Vita  di  Filippo  Secondo,  tom.  ii.  p.  16, — Let:,  Vita  di  Filippo  II., 
tom.  i.  p.  450. 


THE    TURKS  REPULSED.  427 

icier,  who  bore  his  part  in  them,  by  the  sacrifice  of 
contrite  hearts, — as  was  shown  by  the  tears  of  many  a 
man,  as  well  as  woman,  in  the  procession.''^ 

There  was  indeed  almost  as  much  cause  for  sorrow  as 
for  joy.  However  successful  the  Christians  had  been  in 
maintaining  their  defence,  and  however  severe  the  loss 
they  had  inflicted  on  the  enemy,  they  had  to  mourn 
the  loss  of  some  of  their  most  illustrious  knights,  while 
others  lay  disabled  in  their  beds.  Among  the  latter  was 
De  Monti,  admiral  of  the  order,  now  lying  seriously  ill 
of  wounds  received  in  the  defence  of  St.  Michael,  of 
which  he  was  commander.  Among  the  deaths  was 
one  which  came  home  to  the  bosom  of  La  Valette.  A 
young  cavalier,  his  nephew,  had  engaged  in  a  perilous 
enterprise  with  a  comrade  of  his  own  age.  The  hand- 
some person  and  gilded  armor  of  the  younger  La  Valette 
made  him  a  fatal  mark  for  the  enemy ;  '^  and  he  fell, 
together  with  his  friend,  in  the  ditch  before  the  bastion, 
under  a  shower  of  Turkish  bullets.  An  obstinate  struggle 
succeeded  between  Christians  and  Turks  for  the  bodies 
of  the  slain.  The  Christians  were  victorious ;  and  La 
Valette  had  the  melancholy  satisfaction  of  rendering  the 
last  offices  to  the  remains  of  his  gallant  kinsman.  The 
brethren  would  have  condoled  with  him  on  his  loss. 
But  his  generous  nature  shrank  from  the  indulgence  of 
a  selfish  sorrow.  "All  are  alike  dear  to  me,"  he  said; 
"all  of  you  I  look  on  as  my  children.     I  mourn  for 

*7  "  Y  sino  solenne  como  en  esta  religion  se  suele  hazer,  alomenos 
cotrita  a  lo  que  las  lagrimas  de  muchos  hombres  y  mugeres  davan 
serial."     Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  94. 

28  "Y  como  el  comendador  era  hombre  de  linda  disposicion,  y  ar- 
mado  de  unas  armas  doradas  y  ricas,  los  turcos  tiraron  todos  a  el." 
Ibid.,  fol.  76. 


428  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

Polastra"  (the  friend  of  the  young  Valette)  "as  I  do 
for  my  own  nephew.  And,  after  all,  it  matters  little. 
They  have  gone  before  us  but  for  a  short  time."  ^ 

It  was  indeed  no  season  for  the  indulgence  of  private 
sorrows,  when  those  of  a  public  nature  pressed  so  heavily 
on  the  heart.  Each  day  the  condition  of  the  besieged 
was  becoming  more  critical.  The  tottering  defences 
both  of  II  Borgo  and  La  Sangle  were  wasting  away 
under  the  remorseless  batteries  of  the  besiegers.  Great 
numbers,  not  merely  of  the  knights  and  the  soldiers, 
but  of  the  inhabitants,  had  been  slain.  The  women  of 
the  place  had  shown,  throughout  the  whole  siege,  the 
same  heroic  spirit  as  the  men.  They  not  only  dis- 
charged the  usual  feminine  duties  of  tending  and 
relieving  the  sick,  but  they  were  often  present  in  the 
battle,  supplying  the  garrison  with  refreshments,  or 
carrying  the  ammunition,  or  removing  the  wounded  to 
the  hospital.  Thus  sharing  in  the  dangers  of  their  hus- 
bands and  fathers,  they  shared  too  in  their  fate.  Many 
perished  by  the  enemy's  fire ;  and  the  dead  bodies  of 
women  lay  mingled  among  those  of  the  men,  on  the 
ramparts  and  in  the  streets. 3°  The  hospitals  were  filled 
with  the  sick  and  wounded,  though  fortunately  no 
epidemic  had  as  yet  broken  out  to  swell  the  bills  of 
mortality.  Those  of  the  garrison  who  were  still  in  a 
condition  to  do  their  duty  were  worn  by  long  vigils  and 
excessive  toil.  To  fight  by  day,  to  raise  intrenchments 
or  to  repair  the  crumbling  works  by  night,  was  the  hard 
duty  of  the  soldier.    Brief  was  the  respite  allowed  him 

«9  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  ubi  supra. — Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta, 
vol.  iii.  p.  14. 
30  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  66,  82. 


CONSTANCY  OF  LA    VALETTE. 


429 


for  repose, — a  repose  to  be  broken  at  any  moment  by 
the  sound  of  the  alarm-bell,  and  to  be  obtained  only 
amidst  so  wild  an  uproar  that  it  seemed,  in  the  homely 
language  of  the  veteran  so  often  quoted,  **as  if  the 
world  were  coming  to  an  end."^' 

Happily,  through  the  provident  care  of  the  grand 
master,  there  was  still  a  store  of  provisions  in  the 
magazines.  But  the  ammunition  was  already  getting 
low.  Yet  the  resolution  of  the  besieged  did  not  fail 
them.  Their  resolution  had  doubtless  been  strength- 
ened by  the  cruel  conduct  of  the  Turks  at  St.  Elmo, 
which  had  shoAvn  that  from  such  a  foe  there  was  no 
mercy  to  be  expected.  The  conviction  of  this  had 
armed  the  Christians  with  the  courage  of  despair.  On 
foreign  succor  they  no  longer  relied.  Their  only 
reliance  was  where  their  chief  had  taught  them  to 
place  it,  —  on  the  protection  of  Heaven ;  and  La 
Valette,  we  are  assured,  went  every  day  during  the 
siege  to  the  church  of  St.  Lawrence,  and  there  sol- 
emnly invoked  that  protection  for  the  brave  men  who, 
alone  and  unaided,  were  thus  fighting  the  battles  of 
the  Faith.3^ 

The  forlorn  condition  of  the  defences  led,  at  length, 
the  council  of  Grand  Crosses,  after  much  deliberation, 
to  recommend  to  La  Valette  to  abandon  II  Borgo  and 
to  withdraw  with  the  troops  and  the  inhabitants  into 
the  castle  of  St.  Angelo.  The  grand  master  saw  at 
once  the  disastrous  consequences  of  such  a  step,  and 

3'  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  78. 

3»  "  Mucha';  vezes  solo  se  yva  a  san  Loren9o,  y  alii  en  sn  aparta- 
miento  hazia  sus  oraciones.  Y  enoste  exercicio  se  occupava  quando 
se  tenia  algun  sosiego."     Ibid.,  fol.  84. 


43° 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


he  rejected  it  without  a  moment's  hesitation.  To 
withdraw  into  the  castle,  he  said,  would  be  to  give  up 
all  communication  with  St.  Michael,  and  to  abandon 
its  brave  garrison  to  their  fate.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
town  would  fare  no  better.  The  cistern  which  supplied 
St.  Angelo  with  water  would  be  wholly  inadequate  to 
the  demands  of  such  a  multitude;  and  they  would 
soon  be  reduced  to  extremity.  "No,  my  brethren," 
he  concluded;  "here  we  must  make  our  stand;  and 
here  we  must  die,  if  we  cannot  maintain  ourselves 
against  the  infidel.  "33 

He  would  not  even  consent  to  have  the  sacred  relics, 
or  the  archives  of  the  order,  removed  thither,  as  to  a 
place  of  greater  security.  It  would  serve  to  discourage 
the  soldiers,  by  leading  them  to  suppose  that  he  dis- 
trusted their  power  of  maintaining  the  town  against  the 
enemy.  On  the  contrary,  he  caused  a  bridge  commu- 
nicating with  the  castle  to  be  broken  down,  after  calling 
off  the  greater  part  of  the  garrison  to  assist  in  the  de- 
fence of  II  Borgo.  By  these  measures  he  proclaimed 
his  unalterable  determination  to  maintain  the  town  to 
the  last,  and,  if  need  were,  to  die  in  its  defence.^ 

33  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  p.  29. 

34  "  Lo  qual  sabido  por  el  gran  Maestre  como  aquel  que  jamas 
penso  sino  morir  el  primo  por  su  religion,  y  por  quitar  toda  sospecha 
despues  de  aver  hecho  llevar  en  sant  Angel  todas  las  reliquias  y  cosas 
de  mas  valor,  mando  quitar  la  puente,  dando  a  entender  a  todo  el 
mundo  que  enel  no  avia  retirar,  sino  morir  en  el  Burgo,  o  defenderlo." 
Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  94. — See  also  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta, 
vol.  iii.  p.  29, — Calderon,  Gloriosa  Defensa  de  Malta,  p.  167,  at  seq. 


CHAPTER   V. 

SIEGE   OF   MALTA. 

The  Turks  dispirited. — Reinforcement  from  Sicily. — Siege  raised. — 
Mustapha  defeated. — Rejoicings  of  tlie  Christians. — Mortificatioa 
of  Solyman.  —  Review  of  the  Siege.  —  Subsequent  History  of  La 
Valette. 

1565. 

While  the  affairs  of  the  besieged  wore  the  gloomy- 
aspect  depicted  in  the  last  chapter,  those  of  the  be- 
siegers were  not  much  better.  More  than  half  of  their 
original  force  had  perished.  To  the  bloody  roll  of 
those  who  had  fallen  in  the  numerous  assaults  were 
now  to  be  added  the  daily  victims  of  pestilence.  In 
consequence  of  the  great  heat,  exposure,  and  bad  food, 
a  dysentery  had  broken  out  in  the  Moslem  army  and 
was  now  sweeping  off  its  hundreds  in  a  day.  Both 
ammunition  and  provisions  were  running  low.  Ships 
bringing  supplies  were  constantly  intercepted  by  the 
Sicilian  cruisers.  Many  of  the  heavy  guns  were  so 
much  damaged  by  the  fire  of  the  besieged  as  to  re- 
quire to  be  withdrawn  and  sent  on  board  the  fleet, — 
an  operation  performed  with  a  silence  that  contrasted 
strongly  with  the  noisy  shouts  with  which  the  batteries 
had  been  raised.'     But  these  movements  could  not  be 

'  "  Ya  seles  conocia,  que  les  faltavan  muchas  pie9as  que  avian  em- 
barcado,  y  cada  noche  se  sentia  como  las  retiravan,  ala  sorda  sin  los 
alaridos  que  davan  al  principio  quando  las  plantaron."  Balbi,  Verda- 
dera  Relacion,  fol.  loi. 

(431) 


432 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


conducted  so  silently  as  to  escape  the  notice  of  the  gar- 
rison, whose  spirits  were  much  revived  by  the  reports 
daily  brought  in  by  deserters  of  the  condition  of  the 
enemy. 

Mustapha  chafed  not  a  little  under  the  long-protracted 
resistance  of  the  besieged.  He  looked  with  apprehen- 
sion to  the  consequences  of  failure  in  an  expedition  for 
which  preparations  had  been  made  on  so  magnificent 
a  scale  by  his  master  and  with  so  confident  hopes  of 
success.  He  did  not  fail  to  employ  every  expedient 
for  effecting  his  object  that  the  military  science  of 
that  day — at  least  Turkish  science — could  devise.  He 
ordered  movable  wooden  towers  to  be  built,  such  as 
w-ere  used  under  the  ancient  system  of  besieging  forti- 
fied places,  from  which,  when  brought  near  to  the 
works,  his  musketeers  might  send  their  volleys  into  the 
town.  But  the  besieged,  sallying  forth,  set  fire  to  his 
towers  and  burned  them  to  the  ground.  He  caused  a 
huge  engine  to  be  made,  of  the  capacity  of  a  hogs- 
head, filled  with  combustibles,  and  then  swung,  by 
means  of  machinery,  on  the  rampart  of  the  bastion. 
But  the  garrison  succeeded  in  throwing  it  back  on  the 
heads  of  the  inventors,  where  it  exploded  with  terrible 
effect.  Mustapha  ran  his  mines  under  the  Christian 
defences,  until  the  ground  was  perforated  like  a  honey- 
comb and  the  garrison  seemed  to  be  treading  on  the 
crust  of  a  volcano.  La  Valette  countermined  in  his 
turn.  The  Christians,  breaking  into  the  galleries  of 
the  Turks,  engaged  them  boldly  under  ground ;  and 
sometimes  the  mine,  exploding,  buried  both  Turk  and 
Christian  under  a  heap  of  ruins. 

Bafiled    on    every  point,   with    their   ranks   hourly 


REINFORCEMENT  FROM  SICILY.  433 

thinned  by  disease,  the  Moslem  troops  grew  sullen  and 
dispirited ;  and  now  that  the  bastion  of  Castile,  with 
its  dilapidated  works,  stood  like  some  warrior  stripped 
of  his  armor,  his  defenceless  condition  inviting  attack, 
they  were  in  no  heart  to  make  it.  As  their  fire  slack- 
ened and  their  assaults  became  fewer  and  more  feeble, 
the  confidence  of  the  Christians  was  renewed,  until 
they  even  cherished  the  hope  of  beating  off  the  enemy 
without  the  long-promised  succors  from  Sicily.  For- 
tunately for  the  honor  of  Spain,  the  chivalry  of  St. 
John  were  not  driven  to  this  perilous  attempt. 

Yielding,  at  length,  to  the  solicitations  of  the  knights 
and  the  enthusiasm  of  the  army,  the  viceroy,  Don  Garcia 
de  Toledo,  assembled  his  fleet  in  the  port  of  Syracuse, 
and  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  August  weighed  anchor. 
The  fleet  consisted  of  twenty-eight  galleys,  and  carried 
eleven  thousand  troops,  chiefly  Spanish  veterans,  besides 
two  hundred  knights  of  the  order,  who  had  arrived 
from  other  lands  in  time  to  witness  the  closing  scene 
of  the  drama.  There  was  also  a  good  number  of  ad- 
venturers from  Spain,  France,  and  Italy,  many  of  them 
persons  of  rank,  and  some  of  high  military  renown, 
who  had  come  to  offer  their  services  to  the  knights  of 
Malta  and  share  in  their  glorious  defence. 

Unfortunately,  in  its  short  passage  the  fleet  encoun- 
tered a  violent  gale,  which  did  so  much  damage  that 
the  viceroy  was  compelled  to  return  to  Sicily  and  repair 
his  galleys.  He  then  put  to  sea  again,  with  better 
fortune.  He  succeeded  in  avoiding  the  notice  of  the 
enemy,  part  of  whose  armament  lay  off"  the  mouth  of 
the  Great  Port,  to  prevent  the  arrival  of  succors  to  the 
besieged, — and  on  the  sixth  of  September,  under  cover 
Philip. — Vol.  II. — t         37 


434 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


of  the  evening,  entered  the  Bay  of  Melecca,  on  the 
western  side  of  the  island.' 

The  next  morning,  having  landed  his  forces,  with 
their  baggage  and  military  stores,  the  viceroy  sailed 
again  for  Sicily,  to  bring  over  an  additional  reinforce- 
ment of  four  thousand  troops,  then  waiting  in  Messina. 
He  passed  near  enough  to  the  beleaguered  fortresses  to 
be  descried  by  the  garrisons,  whom  he  saluted  with  three 
salvos  of  artillery,  that  sent  joy  into  their  hearts. ^  It 
had  a  very  different  effect  on  the  besiegers.  They 
listened  with  nervous  credulity  to  the  exaggerated 
reports  that  soon  reached  them  of  the  strength  of  the 
reinforcement  landed  in  the  island,  by  which  they 
expected  to  be  speedily  assaulted  in  their  trenches. 
Without  delay,  Mustapha  made  preparations  for  his 
departure.  His  heavy  guns  and  camp-equipage  were 
got  on  board  the  galleys  and  smaller  vessels  lying  off 
the  entrance  of  the  Great  Port, — and  all  as  silently  and 
expeditiously  as  possible.  La  Valette  had  hoped  that 
some  part  of  the  Spanish  reinforcement  would  be  de- 
tached during  the  night  to  the  aid  of  the  garrison,  when 
he  proposed  to  sally  on  the  enemy,  and,  if  nothing 
better  came  of  it,  to  get  possession  of  their  cannon,  so 
much  needed  for  his  own  fortifications.  But  no  such 
aid  arrived ;  and  through  the  long  night  he  impatiently 

2  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  io6,  et  seq. — Vertot,  Knights  of 
Malta,  vol.  iii.  p.  33. — Calderon,  Gloriosa  Defensa  de  Malta,  pp.  172- 
176. — De  Thou,  Histoire  universelle,  torn.  v.  p.  88. — Cabrera,  Filipe 
Segiindo,  lib.  vi.  cap.  28. — Campana,  Vita  di  Filippo  Secondo,  torn, 
ii.  p.  166. 

3  "  Como  nuestra  armada  estuvo  en  parte  q  la  descubriamos  cla- 
ramente,  cada  galcra  tiro  tres  vezes."  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion, 
fol.  104. 


SIEGE   RAISED.  435 

listened  to  the  creaking  of  the  wheels  that  bore  off  the 
artillery  to  the  ships.* 

With  the  first  light  of  morning  the  whole  Ottoman 
force  was  embarked  on  board  the  vessels,  which,  weigh- 
ing anchor,  moved  round  to  Port  Musiette,  on  the  other 
side  of  St.  Elmo,  where  the  Turkish  fleet,  the  greater 
part  of  which  lay  there,  was  now  busily  preparing  for 
its  departure.  No  sooner  had  the  enemy  withdrawn 
than  the  besieged  poured  out  into  the  deserted  trenches. 
One  or  two  of  those  huge  pieces  of  ordnance,  which, 
from  their  unwieldy  size,  it  was  found  impossible  to  re- 
move, had  been  abandoned  by  the  Turks,  and  remained 
a  memorable  trophy  of  the  siege. ^  The  Christians  were 
not  long  in  levelling  the  Moslem  intrenchments ;  and 
very  soon  the  flag  of  St.  John  was  seen  cheerily  waving 
in  the  breeze,  above  the  ruins  of  St.  Elmo.  The  grand 
master  now  called  his  brethren  together  to  offer  up  their 
devotions  in  the  same  church  of  St.  Lawrence  where  he 
had  so  often  invoked  the  protection  of  Heaven  during 
the  siege.  "  Never  did  music  sound  sweeter  to  human 
ears,"  exclaims  Balbi,  "than  when  those  bells  sum- 
moned us  to  mass,  at  the  same  hour  at  which,  for  three 
months  past,  they  had  sounded  the  alarm  against  the 

4  "  En  el  retirar  su  artilleria,  tan  calladamente  que  no  se  sentia  sino 
el  chillido  de  las  niedas,  y  Dios  sabe  lo  que  al  gran  Maestre  pesava, 
porque  siempre  tuvo  esperan9a  de  ganarle  parte  della,  si  el  soccorro 
se  descubriera."     Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  105. 

5  The  armory  in  the  government  palace  of  Valetta  still  contains  a 
quantity  of  weapons,  sabres,  arquebuses,  steel  bows,  and  the  like, 
taken  at  different  times  from  the  Turks.  Among  others  is  a  cannon 
of  singular  workmanship,  but  very  inferior  in  size  to  the  two  pieces 
of  ordnance  mentioned  in  the  text.  (See  Bigelow's  Travels  in  Malta 
and  Sicily,  p.  226.)  Those  glorious  trophies  of  the  great  siege  should 
have  found  a  place  among  the  national  relics. 


436 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


enemy."  *  A  procession  was  formed  of  all  the  members 
of  the  order,  the  soldiers,  and  the  citizens.  The  ser- 
vices were  performed  with  greater  solemnity,  as  well  as 
pomp,  than  could  be  observed  in  the  hurry  and  tumult 
of  the  siege  ;  and,  with  overflowing  hearts,  the  multi- 
tude joined  in  the  Te  Deum,  and  offered  up  thanks  to 
the  Almighty  and  the  Blessed  Virgin  for  their  deliver- 
ance from  their  enemies.^  It  was  the  eighth  of  Sep- 
tember, the  day  of  the  Nativity  of  the  Virgin, — a 
memorable  day  in  the  annals  of  Malta,  and  still  ob- 
served by  the  inhabitants  as  their  most  glorious  anni- 
versary. 

Hardly  had  the  Turkish  galleys,  with  Mustapha  on 
board,  joined  the  great  body  of  the  fleet  in  Port  Musi- 
ette,  than  that  commander  received  such  intelligence  as 
convinced  him  that  the  report  of  the  Spanish  numbers 
had  been  greatly  exaggerated.  He  felt  that  he  had  acted 
precipitately,  thus  without  a  blow  to  abandon  the  field 
to  an  enemy  his  inferior  in  strength.  His  head  may 
well  have  trembled  on  his  shoulders,  as  he  thought  of 
returning  thus  dishonored  to  the  presence  of  his  indig- 
nant master.  Piali,  it  is  said,  was  not  displeased  at  the 
mortification  of  his  rival.  The  want  of  concert  between 
them  had  in  more  than  one  instance  interfered  with  the 

fi  "  Yo  no  creo  que  musica  jamas  consolasse  humanos  sentidos,  como 
d  nosotros  consolo  el  son  de  nuestras  campanas,  alos  echo,  dia  dela 
Natividad  de  nuestra  seiiora.  Porque  el  gran  Maestre  las  hizo  tocar 
todas  ala  hora  que  se  solia  tocar  al  arma,  y  avia  tres  meses  que  no  his 
aviamos  oydo  sino  para  arma."     Balbi,  Vcrdadera  Relacion,  fol.  105. 

7  "  Esta  manana  pues  tocaron  la  missa,  la  cual  se  canto  muy  de  ma- 
fiana,  y  en  pontifical,  muy  solemnemcnte,  dando  gracias  d  nuestro 
senor  Dios,  y  d  su  bcndita  madre  por  las  gracias  que  nos  avian  hecho." 
Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


MUSTAPHA   DEFEATED.  437 

success  of  their  operations.  It  was  now,  however,  agreed 
that  Mustapha  should  disembark,  with  such  of  the  troops 
as  were  in  fighting-order,  and  give  battle  to  the  Span- 
iards. Piali,  meanwhile,  would  quit  the  port,  which 
lay  exposed  to  St.  Elmo, — now  in  his  enemy's  hands, — ■ 
and  anchor  farther  west,  in  the  roads  of  St.  Paul. 

The  troops  from  Sicily,  during  this  time,  had  ad- 
vanced into  the  interior,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Citta 
Notable, — or,  as  it  is  now  called,  Citta  Vecchia.  They 
were  commanded  by  Ascanio  de  la  Corna,  an  officer 
who  had  gained  a  name  in  the  Italian  wars.  Alvaro 
de  Sande  was  second  in  command,  the  same  captain 
who  made  so  heroic  a  defence  in  the  isle  of  Gelves 
against  the  Turks.  The  chivalrous  daring  of  the  latter 
officer  was  well  controlled  by  the  circumspection  of  the 
former. 

La  Valette,  who  kept  a  vigilant  eye  on  the  move- 
ments of  the  Turks,  was  careful  to  advise  Don  Ascanio 
that  they  had  again  disembarked,  and  were  on  their 
march  against  him.  The  Spanish  general  took  up  a 
strong  position  on  an  eminence  the  approach  to  which 
was  rugged  and  difficult  in  the  extreme.  Thus  secured, 
the  prudent  chief  proposed  to  await  the  assault  of  the 
Moslems.  But  the  knights  of  St.  John  who  had  ac- 
companied the  Sicilian  succors,  eager  for  vengeance 
on  the  hated  enemies  of  their  order,  called  loudly  to 
be  led  against  the  infidel.  In  this  they  were  joined 
by  the  fiery  De  Sande  and  the  greater  part  of  the 
troops.  When  the  Moslem  banners,  therefore,  came  in 
sight,  and  the  dense  columns  of  the  enemy  were  seen 
advancing  across  the  country,  the  impatience  of  the 
Christians  was  not  to  be  restrained.  The  voices  of 
37* 


438  SIEGE   OF  MALTA. 

the  officers  were  unheeded.  Don  Ascanio  saw  it  was 
not  wise  to  balk  this  temper  of  the  troops.  They 
were  hastily  formed  in  order  of  battle,  and  then,  like 
a  mountain-torrent,  descended  swiftly  against  the  foe. 

On  their  left  was  a  hill,  crowned  by  a  small  tower 
that  commanded  the  plain.  The  Turks  had  succeeded 
in  getting  possession  of  this  work.  A  detachment  of 
Spaniards  scaled  the  eminence,  attacked  the  Turks, 
and,  after  a  short  struggle,  carried  the  fort.  INIean- 
while,  the  Maltese  chivalry,  with  Sande  and  the  great 
body  of  the  army,  fell  with  fury  on  the  front  and  flanks 
of  the  enemy.  The  Turkish  soldiers,  disgusted  by  the 
long  and  disastrous  siege,  had  embarked  wifh  great 
alacrity ;  and  they  had  not  repressed  their  murmurs  of 
discontent  when  they  were  again  made  to  land  and  re- 
new the  conflict.  Sullen  and  disheartened,  they  were 
in  no  condition  to  receive  the  shock  of  the  Spaniards, 
Many  were  borne  down  by  it  at  once,  their  ranks  were 
broken,  and  their  whole  body  was  thrown  into  disarray. 
Some  few  endeavored  to  make  head  against  their  assail- 
ants. Most  thought  only  of  securing  safety  by  flight. 
The  knights  followed  close  on  the  fugitives.  Now  was 
the  hour  of  vengeance.  No  quarter  was  given.  Their 
swords  were  reddened  with  the  blood  of  the  infidel.^ 

Mustapha,  careless  of  his  own  life,  made  the  most 
intrepid  efforts  to  save  his  men.  He  was  ever  in  the 
liottest  of  the  action.  Twice  he  was  unhorsed,  and 
had  nearly  fallen  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies.  At 
length,  rallying  a  body  of  musketeers,  he  threw  himself 
into  the  rear,  to  cover  the  retreat  of  the  army.    Facing 

8  "  No  dexando  de  pelear  aquel  dia,  y  en  sangrentar  muy  bien  sus 
espadas."     Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  119. 


MUSTAPHA   DEFEATED. 


439 


about,  he  sent  such  a  well-directed  volley  among  his 
pursuers,  who  were  coming  on  in  disorder,  that  they 
were  compelled  to  halt.  Don  Alvaro's  horse  was  slain 
under  him.  Several  knights  were  wounded  or  brought 
to  the  ground.  But,  as  those  in  the  rear  came  up, 
Mustapha  was  obliged  to  give  way,  and  was  soon  swept 
along  with  the  tide  of  battle  in  the  direction  of  the 
port  of  St.  Paul,  where  the  fleet  was  at  anchor.  Boats 
were  in  readiness  to  receive  the  troops;  and- a  line  of 
shallops,  filled  with  arquebusiers,  was  drawn  up  along- 
side of  them,  to  cover  the  embarkation.  But  the 
Spaniards,  hurried  forward  by  the  heat  of  the  pursuit, 
waded  up  to  their  girdles  into  the  sea,  and  maintained 
an  incessant  fire  on  the  fugitives,  many  of  whom  fell 
under  it,  while  others,  vainly  endeavoring  to  swim  to 
the  ships,  perished  in  the  waves ;  and  their  bodies, 
tossed  upon  the  sands,  continued  for  many  a  day  to 
poison  the  atmosphere.'  This  was  the  last  effort  of 
Mustapha ;  and  the  Turkish  admiral,  gathering  together 
the  wreck  of  his  forces,  again  weighed  anchor,  and, 
spreading  his  sails  to  the  breeze,  steered  his  course  for 
the  Levant." 

9  "  Lo  qual  se  vio  claramente  dende  a  dos  o  tres  dias  porque  los 
cuerpos  que  se  avian  ahogado  subieron  encima  del  agua,  los  quales 
eran  tantos  que  parecian  mas  de  tres  mil,  y  avia  tanto  hedor  en  todo 
aquello  que  no  se  podia  hombre  llegar  ala  cala."  Balbi,  Verdadera 
Relacion,  fol.  120. — As  an  offset  against  the  three  thousand  of  the 
enemy  who  thus  perished  by  fire  and  water,  the  chronicler  gives  us 
four  Christians  slain  in  the  fight,  and  four  smothered  from  excessive 
heat  in  their  armor ! 

'°  For  the  preceding  pages  see  Balbi  (Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  117- 
121),  who  contrived  to  be  present  in  the  action;  also  Vertot,  Knights 
of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  pp.  35-37, — De  Thou,  Histoire  universelle,  torn.  v. 
p.  89, — Miniana,  Hist,  de  Espaiia,  p.  353, — Campana,  Vitadi  Filippo 


440  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

The  principal  officers  of  the  Spanish  army,  together 
with  the  knights,  then  crossed  over  to  II  Borgo."  They 
met  there  with  a  cordial  welcome;  but  the  knights, 
as  they  embraced  their  comrades,  were  greatly  shocked 
by  their  appearance, — their  wan  and  care-worn  counte- 
nances, their  emaciated  figures,  their  long  and  matted 
hair,  and  their  squalid  attire.  Many  were  disfigured 
by  honorable  scars ;  some  were  miserably  maimed ; 
others  wore  bandages  over  wounds  not  yet  healed.  It 
was  a  piteous  sight,  too  plainly  intimating  the  extremity 
of  suffering  to  which  they  had  been  reduced ;  and  as 
the  knights  gazed  on  their  brethren,  and  called  to  mind 
the  friends  they  had  lost,  their  hearts  were  filled  with 
unspeakable  anguish." 

On  the  fourteenth  of  September,  the  viceroy  reap- 
peared with  the  fleet,  bearing  the  remainder  of  the  re- 
inforcement from  Sicily.  The  admiral's  pennant  dis- 
played a  cross,  intimating  that  it  was  a  holy  war  in  which 
they  were  engaged. '^  As  the  squadron  came  proudly 
up  the  Great  Port,  with  pennons  and  streamers  gayly 
flying  from  its  masts,  it  was  welcomed  by  salvos  of  ar- 
tillery from  the  fortresses  and  bastions  around  ;  and  the 
rocky  shores,  which  had  so  long  reverberated  only  with 
the  din  of  war,  now  echoed  to  the  sounds  of  jubilee. 

Secondo,  tom.ii.  p.  160, — Henera,  Historia  general,  torn.  i.  p.  591, — 
Calderon,  Gloriosa  Defensa  de  Malta,  p.  180,  et  seq. 

''  "  Se  vinieron  al  Burgo,  tanto  por  ver  la  persona  del  gran  Maestre 
tan  dichosa  y  valerosa,  como  por  ver  la  grandissima  disformidad  y 
llaneza  de  nuestras  baterias."     Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  121. 

'*  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  p.  39. 

»3  "  Al  entrar  del  qual  despues  que  la  Real  capitana  uvo  puesto  sus 
estandartes  los  pusieron  todas  las  demas,  y  muy  ricos,  la  Real  traya 
enla  flama  un  crucifixo  muy  devoto."  Balbi,  Verdidera  Relacion, 
fol.  122. 


REJOICINGS   OF  THE   CHRISTIANS.         441 

The  grand  master  came  down  to  the  landing-place 
below  St.  Angelo,  to  receive  the  viceroy,  with  the 
nobles  and  cavaliers  who  followed  in  his  train.  They 
had  come  too  late  to  share  the  dangers  of  the  besieged, 
but  not  too  late  to  partake  their  triumph.  They  were 
courteously  conducted  by  La  Valette,  across  the  scene 
of  desolation,  to  his  own  palace,  which,  though  in  an 
exposed  quarter  of  the  fown,  had  so  far  escaped  as  to 
be  still  habitable.  As  the  strangers  gazed  on  the  re- 
mains of  the  fortifications,  nearly  levelled  to  the 
ground,  they  marvelled  that  the  shadowy  forms  which 
they  saw  gliding  among  the  ruins  could  have  so  long 
held  out  against  the  Moslem  armies.  Well  had  they 
earned  for  their  city  the  title  of  Vittoriosa,  "The  Vic- 
torious," which,  suppilanting  that  of  II  Borgo,  still 
commemorates  its  defence  against  the  infidel. 

La  Valette  had  provided  an  entertainment  for  his 
illustrious  guests,  as  good  as  his  limited  resources 
would  allow;  but  it  is  said  that  the  banquet  was  re- 
inforced by  a  contribution  from  the  viceroy's  own 
stores. '''  On  the  departure  of  the  Spaniards  he  showed 
his  gratitude,  while  he  indulged  his  munificent  spirit, 
by  bestowing  handsome  presents  on  the  captains  and  a 
liberal  largess  of  money  on  the  soldiers.'^ 

'4  "  Fueronse  para  Palacio,  adonde  dio  el  gran  Maestre  a  todos  muy 
realmente  de  cenar,  porque  ya  el  governador  del  Gozo  le  avia  embiado 
muchos  refrescos,  y  don  Garcia  y  todos  los  capitanes  del  armada  le 
presentaron  de  la  misma  manera."  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol. 
122. 

»s  Balbi  expresses  his  satisfaction  at  the  good  cheer,  declaring  that 
the  dainties  brought  by  the  viceroy,  however  costly,  seemed  cheap  to 
men  who  had  been  paying  two  ducats  for  a  fowl,  and  a  real  and  a 
half  for  an  egg.     Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 
T* 


442 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


On  his  way,  the  viceroy  had  discovered  the  Ottoman 
fleet  formed  in  compact  order  and  standing  under 
press  of  sail  towards  the  east.  He  was  too  far  inferior 
in  strength  to  care  to  intercept  its  course ;  '*  and  the 
squadron  reached  in  safety  the  port  of  Constantinople. 
Solyman  had  already  received  despatches  preparing 
him  for  the  return  of  the  fleet  and  the  failure  of  the 
expedition.  It  threw  him  into  one  of  those  paroxysms 
of  ungovernable  passion  to  which  the  old  sultan  seems 
to  have  been  somewhat  addicted  in  the  latter  years  of 
his  life.  With  impotent  fury,  he  stamped  on  the  let- 
ters, it  is  said,  and,  protesting  that  there  was  none  of 
his  officers  whom  he  could  trust,  he  swore  to  lead  an 
expedition  against  Malta  the  coming  year  and  put  every 
man  in  the  island  to  the  sword  !  '='  He  had  the  mag- 
nanimity, however,  not  to  wreak  his  vengeance  on  the 
unfortunate  commanders.  The  less  to  attract  public 
notice,  he  caused  the  fleet  bearing  the  shatterec^  re- 
mains of  the  army  to  come  into  port  in  the  night-time , 
thus  affording  a  contrast  sufficiently  striking  to  the 
spectacle  presented  by  the  brilliant  armament  which  a 
few  months  before  had  sailed  from  the  Golden  Horn 
amidst  the  joyous  acclamations  of  the  multitude. 

The  arms  of  Solyman  the  Second,  during  his  long 
and  glorious  reign,  met  with  no  reverse  so  humiliating 
as  his  failure  in  the  siege  of  Malta.  To  say  nothing 
of  tlie  cost  of  the  maritime  preparations,  the  waste  of 
life  was  prodigious,  amounting  to  more  than  thirty 
thousand  men.  Moors  included,  and  comprehending 
the  very  best   troops  in   the  empire.     This  was  a  loss 

'^  lierrera,  Historia  general,  vol.  i.  p.  592. 
»7  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  p.  38. 


RE  VIE IV  OF  .THE   SIEGE. 


443 


of  nearly  three-fourths  of  the  original  force  of  the  be- 
sieging army, — an  almost  incredible  amount,  showing 
that  pestilence  had  been  as  actively  at  work  as  the  sword 
of  the  enemy. '^ 

Yet  the  loss  in  this  siege  fell  most  grievously  on 
the  Christians.  Full  two  hundred  knights,  twenty- 
five  hundred  soldiers,  and  more  than  seven  thousand 
inhabitants, — men,  women,  and  children, — are  said  to 
have  perished.''  The  defences  of  the  island  were  razed 
to  the  ground.  The  towns  were  in  ruins,  the  villages 
burnt,  the  green  harvests  cut  down  before  they  had 
time  to  ripen.  The  fiery  track  of  war  was  over  every 
part  of  Malta.  Well  might  the  simple  inhabitants  rue 
the  hour  when  the  Knights  of  St.  John  first  set  foot 
upon  their  shores.  The  military  stores  were  exhausted, 
the  granaries  empty;  the  treasury  was  at  the  lowest 
ebb.  The  members  of  the  order  had  now  to  begin 
the  work  of  constructing  their  fortunes  over  again. 
But  still  they  enjo)^ed  the  glory  of  victory.  They  had 
the  proud  consciousness  of  having  baffled,  with  their 

'8  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  121. — De  Thou  reduces  the  mor- 
tality to  twenty  thousand  (Hist,  universelle,  torn.  v.  p.  592).  Herrera, 
on  the  other  hand,  raises  it  to  forty  thousand  (Historia  general,  torn. 
i.  p.  90).  The  whole  Moslem  force,  according  to  Balbi,  was  forty- 
eight  thousand,  exclusive  of  seamen.  Of  these  about  thirty  thousand 
•were  Turks.  The  remainder  belonged  to  the  contingents  furnished  by 
Dragut  and  Hassem.     Conf.  fol.  25  and  121. 

»9  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  128. — Balbi  gives  a  list  of  all  the 
knights  who  perished  in  the  siege.  Cabrera  makes  a  similar  estimate 
of  the  Christian  loss  (Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  vi.  cap.  28).  De  Thou 
rates  it  somewhat  lower  (Hist,  imiverselle,  torn.  v.  p.  90) ;  and  Vertot 
lower  still  (Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  p.  38).  Yet  Balbi  may  be  thouglit 
to  show  too  little  disposition,  on  other  occasions,  to  exaggerate  the 
loss  of  his  own  side,  for  us  to  suspect  him  of  exaggeration  here. 


444  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

own  good  swords,  the  whole  strength  of  the  Ottoman 
empire.  The  same  invincible  spirit  still  glowed  in 
their  bosoms,  and  they  looked  forward  with  unshaken 
confidence  to  the  future. 

Such  were  the  results  of  this  memorable  siege, — one 
of  the  most  memorable  sieges,  considering  the  scale 
of  the  preparations,  the  amount  of  the  forces,  and  the 
spirit  of  the  defence,  which  are  recorded  on  the  pages 
of  history.  It  v.'ould  not  be  easy,  even  for  a  military 
man,  after  the  lapse  of  three  centuries,  to  criticise  with 
any  degree  of  confidence  the  course  pursued  by  the 
combatants,  so  as  to  determine  to  what  causes  may 
be  referred  the  failure  of  the  besiegers.  One  obvious 
fault,  and  of  the  greatest  moment,  was  that  already 
noticed,  of  not  immediately  cutting  off  the  communi- 
cations with  St.  Elmo,  by  which  supplies  were  con- 
stantly thrown  into  that  fortress  from  the  opposite  side 
of  the  harbor.  Another,  similar  in  its  nature,  was, 
that,  with  so  powerful  a  navy  as  the  Turks  had  at  their 
command,  they  should  have  allowed  communications 
to  be  maintained  by  the  besieged  with  Sicily,  and  re- 
inforcements thus  introduced  into  the  island.  We  find 
Mustapha  and  Piali  throwing  the  blame  of  this  mutu- 
ally on  each  other,  especially  in  the  case  of  Cardona, 
whose  most  seasonable  succors  might  easily  have  been 
intercepted,  either  by  land  or  by  sea,  with  proper  vigi- 
lance on  the  part  of  the  Turkish  commanders.  A 
serious  impediment  in  the  way  of  the  besiegers  was 
the  impossibility  of  forcing  a  subsistence  for  the  troops 
from  a  barren  spot  like  Malta,  and  the  extreme  diffi- 
culty of  obtaining  supplies  from  other  quarters,  when 
so  easily  intercepted  by  the  enemy's  cruisers.     Yet  the 


REVIEW  OF  THE   SIEGE. 


445 


Turkish  galleys  lying  idle  in  the  western  port  might 
have  furnished  a  ready  convoy,  one  might  suppose,  for 
transports  bringing  provisions  from  the  Barbary  coast. 
B'lt  we  find  no  such  thing  attempted.  To  all  these 
causes  of  failure  must  be  added  the  epidemic,  which, 
generated  under  the  tropical  heats  of  a  Maltese  sum- 
mer, spread  like  a  murrain  through  the  camp  of  the 
besiegers,  sweeping  them  off  by  thousands. 

It  operated  well  for  the  besieged  that  the  great  ad- 
vance made  in  the  science  of  fortification  was  such,  in 
the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  as  in  a  great 
degree  to  counterbalance  the  advantages  secured  to 
the  besiegers  by  the  use  of  artillery, — especially  such 
clumsy  artillery,  and  so  awkwardly  served,  as  that  of 
the  Turks.  But  these  advantages  would  have  proved 
of  little  worth  had  it  not  been  for  the  character  of  the 
men  who  were  to  profit  by  them.  It  was  the  character 
of  the  defenders  that  constituted  the  real  strength  of 
the  defence.  This  was  the  true  bulwark  that  resisted 
every  effort  of  the  Ottoman  arms  when  all  outward  de- 
fences were  swept  away.  Every  knight  was  animated 
by  a  sentiment  of  devotion  to  his  order,  and  that 
hatred  to  the  infidel  in  which  he  had  been  nursed  from 
his  cradle  and  which  had  become  a  part  of  his  exist- 
ence. These  sentiments  he  had  happily  succeeded  in 
communicating  to  his  followers,  and  even  to  the  people 
of  the  island.  Thus  impelled  by  an  unswerving  prin- 
ciple of  conduct,  the  whole  body  exhibited  that  unity 
and  promptness  of  action  which  belongs  to  an  indi- 
vidual. From  the  first  hour  of  the  siege  to  the  last,  all 
idea  of  listening  to  terms  from  the  enemy  was  rejected. 
Every  man  was  prepared  to  die  rather  than  surrender. 
Philip.— Vol.  II.  38 


446  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

One  exception  only  occurred, — that  of  a  private  soldier 
in  La  Sangle,  who,  denying  the  possibility  of  holding 
out  against  the  Turks,  insisted  on  the  necessity  of 
accepting  the  terms  offered  to  the  garrison.  The  ex- 
ample of  his  cowardice  might  have  proved  contagious ; 
and  the  wretched  man  expiated  his  offence  on  the 
gallows.*" 

Above  all,  the  strength  of  the  besieged  lay  in  the 
character  of  their  chief.  La  Valette  was  one  of  those 
rare  men  whom  Providence  seems  to  raise  up  for  special 
occasions,  so  wonderfully  are  their  peculiar  qualities 
suited  to  the  emergency.  To  that  attachment  to  his 
order  which  he  had  in  common  with  his  brethren,  he 
miited  a  strong  religious  sentiment,  sincere  and  self- 
sacrificing,  which  shone  through  every  act  of  his  life. 
This  gave  him  an  absolute  ascendency  over  his  follow- 
ers, which  he  had  the  capacity  to  turn  to  full  account. 
He  possessed  many  of  the  requisites  for  success  in 
action ;  great  experience,  a  quick  eye,  a  cool  judg- 
ment. To  these  was  united  a  fixedness  of  purpose  not 
to  be  shaken  by  menace  or  entreaty,  and  which  was 
only  to  be  redeemed  from  the  imputation  of  obstinacy 
by  the  extraordinary  character  of  the  circumstances 
in  which  he  was  placed.  The  reader  will  recall  a 
memorable  example,  when  La  Valette  insisted  on  de- 
fending St.  Elmo  to  the  last,  in  defiance  not  only  of 
the  remonstrance,  but  the  resistance,  of  its  garrison. 

=°  "  En  todo  este  sitio  nose  a  justiciadosino  un  solo  Italiano Senes, 
el  qual  mando  justiciar  Melchior  de  Robles :  porque  dixo  publica- 
mente  estando  en  el  mayor  aprieto,  que  mas  valiera  que  tomaramos 
las  quatro  pagas  que  los  turcos  nos  ofrccian,  y  el  passage."  Balbi, 
Verdadcra  Relacion,  fol.  128. 


RE  VIE  IV  OF  THE   SIEGE.  447 

Another  equally  pertinent  is  his  refusal,  though  in 
opposition  to  his  council,  to  abandon  the  town  and 
retire  to  St.  Angelo.  One  can  hardly  doubt  that  on 
his  decision,  in  both  these  cases,  rested  the  fate  of 
Malta. 

La  Valette  was  of  a  serious  turn,  and,  as  it  would 
seem,  with  a  tendency  to  sadness  in  his  temperament. 
In  the  portraits  that  remain  of  him,  his  noble  features 
are  touched  with  a  shade  of  melancholy,  which,  taken 
in  connection  with  his  history,  greatly  heightens  the 
interest  of  their  expression.  His  was  not  the  buoyant 
temper,  the  flow  of  animal  spirits,  which  carries  a  man 
over  every  obstacle  in  his  way.  Yet  he  could  comfort 
the  sick  and  cheer  the  desponding ;  not  by  making 
light  of  danger,  but  by  encouraging  them  like  brave 
men  fearlessly  to  face  it.  He  did  not  delude  his 
followers  by  the  promises — after  he  had  himself  found 
them  to  be  delusive — of  foreign  succor.  He  taught 
them,  instead,  to  rely  on  the  succor  of  the  Almighty, 
who  would  never  desert  those  who  were  fighting  in  his 
cause.  He  infused  into  them  the  spirit  of  martyrs, — 
that  brave  spirit  which,  arming  the  soul  with  con- 
tempt of  death,  makes  the  weak  man  stronger  than  the 
strongest. 

There  is  one  mysterious  circumstance  in  the  history 
of  this  siege  which  has  never  been  satisfactorily  ex- 
plained,— the  conduct  of  the  viceroy  of  Sicily.  Most 
writers  account  for  it  by  supposing  that  he  only  acted 
in  obedience  to  the  secret  instructions  of  his  master, 
unwilling  to  hazard  the  safety  of  his  fleet  by  interfering 
in  behalf  of  the  knights,  unless  such  interference  became 
absolutely  necessary.      But  even  on  such  a  supposition 


448  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

the  viceroy  does  not  stand  excused  ;  for  it  was  little  less 
than  a  miracle  that  the  knights  were  not  exterminated 
before  he  came  to  their  relief;  and  we  can  hardly 
suppose  that  an  astute,  far-sighted  prince,  like  Philip, 
who  had  been  so  eager  to  make  conquests  from  the 
Moslems  in  Africa,  would  have  consented  that  the 
stronghold  of  the  Mediterranean  should  pass  into  the 
hands  of  the  Turks.  It  seems  more  probable  that  Don 
Garcia,  aware  of  the  greater  strength  of  the  Turkish 
armament,  and  oppressed  by  the  responsibility  of  his 
situation  as  viceroy  of  Sicily,  should  have  shrunk  from 
the  danger  to  which  that  island  would  be  exposed  by 
the  destruction  of  his  fleet.  On  any  view  of  the  case, 
it  is  difficult  to  explain  a  course  so  irreconcilable  with 
the  plan  of  operations  concerted  with  the  grand  master, 
and  the  promises  of  support  given  to  him  by  Don  Garcia 
at  the  beginning  of  the  siege. 

La  Valette,  we  are  told,  subsequently  complained  of 
the  viceroy's  conduct  to  Pius  the  Fifth ;  and  that 
pontiff  represented  the  affair  to  the  king  of  Spain. 
Don  Garcia  had,  soon  after,  the  royal  permission  to 
retire  from  the  government  of  Sicily.  He  withdrew  to 
the  kingdom  of  Naples,  where  he  passed  the  remainder 
of  his  days,  without  public  employment  of  any  kind,  and 
died  in  obscurity."  Such  a  fate  may  not  be  thought, 
after  all,  conclusive  evidence  that  he  had  not  acted  in 
obedience  to  the  private  instructions  of  his  sovereign. 

The  reader,  who  has  followed  La  Valette  through  the 
siege  of  Malta,  may  perhaps  feel  some  curiosity  to  learn 
the  fate  of  this  remarkable  man.     The  discomfiture  of 

"  For  this  act  of  retributive  justice,  so  agreeable  to  the  feehngs  of 
the  reader,  I  have  no  other  authority  to  give  than  Vertot,  Knights  of 
Malta,  vol.  iii.  p.  i8. 


REVIEW  OF   THE   SIEGE.  449 

the  Turks  caused  a  great  sensation  throughout  Europe. 
In  Rome  the  tidings  were  announced  by  the  discharge 
of  cannon,  iUuminations,  and  bonfires.  The  places  of 
public  business  were  closed.  The  shops  were  shut. 
The  only  places  opened  were  the  churches;  and  thither 
persons  of  every  rank — the  pope,  the  cardinals,  and  the 
people — thronged  in  procession,  and  joined  in  public 
thanksgiving  for  the  auspicious  event.  The  rejoicing 
was  great  all  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean, 
where  the  inhabitants  had  so  severely  suffered  from  the 
ravages  of  the  Turks.  The  name  of  La  Valette  was 
on  every  tongue,  as  that  of  the  true  champion  of  the 
cross.  Crowned  heads  vied  with  one  another  in  the 
honors  and  compliments  which  they  paid  him.  The 
king  of  Spain  sent  him  a  present  of  a  sword  and 
poniard,  the  handles  of  which  were  of  gold  superbly 
mounted  with  diamonds.  The  envoy,  who  delivered 
these  in  presence  of  the  assembled  knights,  accom- 
panied the  gift  with  a  pompous  eulogy  on  La  Valette 
himself,  whom  he  pronounced  the  greatest  captain  of 
the  age,  beseeching  him  to  continue  to  employ  his 
sword  in  defence  of  Christendom.  Pius  the  Fifth  sent 
him — ^what,  considering  the  grand  master's  position, 
may  be  thought  a  singular  compliment — a  cardinal's 
hat.  La  Valette,  however,  declined  it,  on  the  ground 
that  his  duties  as  a  cardinal  would  interfere  with  those 
which  devolved  on  him  as  head  of  the  order.  Some 
referred  his  refusal  to  modesty ;  others,  with  probably 
quite  as  much  reason,  to  his  unwillingness  to  compro- 
mise his  present  dignity  by  accepting  a  subordinate 
station." 

^  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  pp.  39,  40. — Calderon,  Gloriosa 

3^* 


450  SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 

But  La  Valette  had  no  time  to  dally  with  idle  com- 
pliments and  honors.  His  little  domain  lay  in  ruins 
around  him ;  and  his  chief  thought  now  was  how  to 
restore  its  fortunes.  The  first  year  after  the  siege,  the 
knights  had  good  reason  to  fear  a  new  invasion  of  the 
Moslems ;  and  Philip  quartered  a  garrison  of  near  fif- 
teen thousand  troops  in  the  island  for  its  protection. ^^^ 
But  Solyman  fortunately  turned  his  arms  against  a 
nearer  enemy,  and  died  in  the  course  of  the  same  year, 
while  carrying  on  the  war  against  Hungary.^  Selim, 
his  successor,  found  another  direction  for  his  ambition. 
Thus  relieved  of  his  enemies,  the  grand  master  was 
enabled  to  devote  all  his  energies  to  the  great  work  of 
rebuilding  his  fallen  capital  and  placing  the  island  in  a 
more  perfect  state  of  defence  than  it  had  ever  been. 
He  determined  on  transferring  the  residence  of  the 
order  to  the  high  land  of  Mount  Sceberras,  which 
divides  the  two  harbors  and  which  would  give  him  the 
command  of  both.  His  quick  eye  readily  discerned 
those  advantages  of  the  position,  which  time  has  since 
fully  proved.     Here  he  resolved  to  build  his  capital,  to 

Defensa  de  Malta,  pp.  189, 190. — De  Thou,  Hist,  universelle,  torn.  v. 
p.  91. 

=3  "  Havia  en  la  Isla  de  Malta  quinze  mil  hombres  de  pelea,  los 
quales  bastaran  para  resistir  a  qualquiera  poder  del  gran  Turco  en 
campana  rasa."  Balbi,  Verdadera  Relacion,  fol.  129. — Besides  the 
Spanish  forces,  a  body  of  French  adventurers  took  service  under  La 
Valette,  and  remained  for  some  time  in  Malta. 

=■1  Vertot  tells  us  that  the  projected  expedition  ot  Solyman  against 
Malta  was  prevented  by  the  destruction  of  the  grand  arsenal  of  Con- 
stantinople, which  was  set  on  fire  by  a  secret  emissary  of  La  Valette. 
(Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  p.  41.)  We  should  be  better  pleased  if 
the  abbd  had  given  his  authority  for  this  strange  story,  the  probability 
of  which  is  not  at  all  strengthened  by  what  we  know  of  the  grand 
master's  character. 


SUBSEQUENT  HISTORY  OF  LA    VALETTE.     451 

surround  it  with  fortifications,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to 
enlarge  and  strengthen  those  of  St.  Elmo. 

But  his  treasury  was  low.  He  prepared  a  plan  of  his 
improvements,  which  he  sent  to  the  different  European 
princes,  requesting  their  co-operation,  and  urging  the 
importance  to  them  all  of  maintaining  Malta  as  the 
best  bulwark  against  the  infidel.  His  plan  met  with  gen- 
eral approbation.  Most  of  the  sovereigns  responded  to 
his  appeal  by  liberal  contributions, — and  among  them 
the  French  king,  notwithstanding  his  friendly  relations 
with  the  sultan.  To  these  funds  the  members  of  the 
order  freely  added  whatever  each  could  raise  by  his 
own  credit.  This  amount  was  still  further  swelled  by 
the  proceeds  of  prizes  brought  into  port  by  the  Maltese 
cruisers, — an  inexhaustible  source  of  revenue. 

Funds  being  thus  provided,  the  work  went  forward 
apace.  On  the  twenty-eighth  of  March,  1566,  the 
grand  master,  clad  in  his  robes  of  ceremony,  and  in 
the  presence  of  a  vast  concourse  of  knights  and  in- 
habitants, laid  the  first  stone  of  the  new  capital.  It 
was  carved  with  his  own  arms ;  and  a  Latin  inscription 
recorded  the  name  of  "Valetta,"  which  the  city  was 
to  bear  in  honor  of  its  founder.^?  More  than  eight 
thousand  men  were  employed  on  the  work  j  and  a  bull 
of  Pius  the  Fifth  enjoined  that  their  labors  should  not 
be  suspended  on  fete-days.^    It  seemed  to  be  regarded 

»s  It  was  common  for  the  Maltese  cities,  after  the  Spanish  and 
Italian  fashion,  to  have  characteristic  epithets  attached  to  their  names. 
La  Valette  gave  the  new  capital  the  title  of  "  Umillima" — "  most 
humble," — intimating  that  humility  was  a  virtue  of  highest  price  with 
the  fraternity  of  St.  John.  See  Boisgelin,  Ancient  and  Modern  Malta, 
vol.  i.  p.  29. 

26  "  Plus  de  huit  mille  ouvriers  y  furent  employes ;  et  afin  d'avancer 


452 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


as  a  Christian  duty  to  provide  for  the  restoration  of 
Malta.  =^  La  Valette  superintended  the  operations  in 
person.  He  was  ever  to  be  seen  on  the  spot,  among 
the  workmen.  Tliere  he  took  his  meals,  discussed 
affairs  of  state  with  his  council,  and  even  gave  audi- 
ence to  envoys  from  abroad. "* 

In  the  midst  of  these  quiet  occupations,  there  were 
some  occurrences  which  distracted  the  attention  and 
greatly  disturbed  the  tranquillity  of  La  Valette.  One 
of  these  was  the  disorderly  conduct  of  some  of  the 
younger  knights.  Another  was  a  dispute  in  which  he 
was  involved  with  the  pope,  who,  in  the  usual  encroach- 
ing spirit  of  the  Vatican,  had  appropriated  to  himself 
the  nomination  to  certain  benefices  belonging  to  the 
order. 

These  unpleasant  affairs  weighed  heavily  on  the  grand 
master's  mind;  and  he  often  sought  to  relieve  his  spirits 
by  the  diversion  of  hawking,  of  which  he  was  extremely 
fond.  While  engaged  in  this  sport,  on  a  hot  day  in 
July,  he  received  a  stroke  of  the  sun.     He  was  imme- 

plus  aisement  les  travaux,  le  Pape  Pie  V.  commanda  qu'on  y  travaillat 
sans  discontinuer,  meme  les  jours  de  Fetes."  Helyot,  Hist,  des  Ordres 
religieux. 

=7  The  style  of  the  architecture  of  the  new  capital  seems  to  have 
been,  to  some  extent,  formed  on  that  of  Rhodes,  though,  according 
to  Lord  Carlisle,  of  a  more  ornate  and  luxuriant  character  than  its 
model :  "  I  traced  much  of  the  military  architecture  of  Rhodes,  which, 
grave  and  severe  there,  has  here  both  swelled  into  great  amplitude  and 
blossomed  into  copious  efflorescence ;  it  is  much  the  same  relation  as 
Henry  VH.'s  Chapel  bears  to  a  bit  of  Durham  Cathedral."  (Diary  in 
Turkish  and  Greek  Waters,  p.  200.)  The  account  of  Malta  is  not  the 
least  attractive  portion  of  this  charming  work,  to  which  Felton's  notes 
have  given  additional  value. 

^^  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  p.  42. 


SUBSEQUENT  HISTORY  OF  LA    VALETTE.     453 

diately  taken  to  II  Borgo.  A  fever  set  in ;  and  it  soon 
became  apparent  that  his  frame,  enfeebled  by  his  un- 
paralleled fatigues  and  hardships,  was  rapidly  sinking 
under  it.  Before  dying,  he  called  around  his  bed  some 
of  the  brethren  to  whom  the  management  of  affairs  was 
chiefly  committed,  and  gave  them  his  counsel  in  respect 
to  the  best  method  of  carrying  out  his  plans.  He 
especially  enjoined  on  them  to  maintain  a  spirit  of 
unity  among  themselves,  if  they  would  restore  the  order 
to  its  ancient  prosperity  and  grandeur.  By  his  testa- 
ment, he  liberated  his  slaves,  some  fifty  in  number; 
and  he  obtained  the  consent  of  his  brethren  to  bequeath 
a  sum  sufficient  to  endow  a  chapel  he  had  built  in 
Valetta  to  commemorate  his  victory  over  the  infidels. 
It  was  dedicated  to  the  Blessed  Virgin ;  and  in  this 
chapel  he  desired  that  his  body  might  be  laid.  Hav- 
ing completed  these  arrangements,  he  expired  on  the 
twenty-first  of  August,  1568. 

La  Valette's  dying  commands  were  punctually  exe- 
cuted by  his  brethren.  The  coffin  enclosing  his  remains 
was  placed  on  board  of  the  admiral's  galley,  which, 
with  four  others  that  escorted  it,  was  shrouded  in  black. 
They  bore  the  household  of  the  deceased,  and  the 
members  of  the  order.  The  banners  taken  by  him  in 
battle  with  the  Moslems  were  suspended  from  the  sterns 
of  the  vessels,  and  trailed  through  the  water.  The 
procession,  on  landing,  took  its  way  through  the  streets 
of  the  embryo  capital,  where  the  sounds  of  labor  were 
now  hushed,  to  the  chapel  of  Our  Lady  of  Victory. 
The  funeral  obsequies  were  there  performed  with  all 
solemnity;  and  the  remains  of  the  hero  were  consigned 
to  the  tomb,  amidst  the  tears  of  the  multitude,  who  had 


454 


SIEGE    OF  MALTA. 


gathered  from  all  parts  of  the  island,  to  pay  this  sad 
tribute  of  respect  to  his  memory.^ 

The  traveller  who  visits  Malta  at  the  present  day 
finds  no  object  more  interesting  than  the  stately  cathe- 
dral of  Valetta,  still  rich  in  historical  memorials  and  in 
monuments  of  art,  of  which  even  French  rapacity  could 
not  despoil  it.  As  he  descends  into  its  crypts  and 
wanders  through  its  subterranean  recesses,  he  sees  the 
niche  where  still  repose  the  remains  of  La  Valette, 
surrounded  by  the  brave  chivalry  who  fought,  side  by 
side  with  him,  the  battles  of  the  Faith.  And  surely 
no  more  fitting  place  could  be  found  for  his  repose 
than  the  heart  of  the  noble  capital  which  may  be  said 
to  have  been  created  by  his  genius-^" 

The  Knights  of  St.  John  continued,  in  the  main, 
faithful  to  the  maxims  of  La  Valette  and  to  the 
principles  of  their  institution.  For  more  than  two 
centuries  after  his  death,  their  sword  was  ever  raised 
against  the  infidel.  Their  galleys  still  returned  to 
port  freighted  with  the  spoils  of  the  barbarian.  They 
steadily  continued  to  advance  in  power  and  opu- 
lence; and  while  empires  rose  and  crumbled  around 
them,  this  little  brotherhood  of  warlike  monks,  after 
a  lapse  of  more  than  seven  centuries  from  its  foun- 

29  Vertot,  Knights  of  Malta,  vol.  iii.  pp.  42-48. — Boisgelin,  Ancient 
and  Modern  Malta,  vol.  i.  pp.  127-142. 

y>  An  interesting  description  of  this  cathedral,  well  styled  the  West- 
minster Abbey  of  Malta,  may  be  found  in  Bigelow's  Travels  in  Sicily 
and  Malta  (p.  190), — a  M'ork  full  of  instruction,  in  which  the  writer, 
allowing  himself  a  wider  range  than  that  of  the  fashionable  tourist, 
takes  a  comprehensive  survey  of  the  resources  of  the  countries  he  has 
visited,  while  he  criticises  their  present  condition  by  an  enlightened 
comparison  with  the  past. 


SUBSEQUENT  HISTORY  OF  LA    VALETTE.     455 

dation,  still  maintained  a  separate  and  indei^endent 
existence. 

In  the  long  perspective  of  their  annals  there  was  no 
event  which  they  continued  to  hold  in  so  much  honor 
as  the  defence  of  Malta  by  La  Valette.  The  eighth  of 
September — the  day  of  the  nativity  of  the  Virgin — • 
continued  to  the  last  to  be  celebrated  as  their  proudest 
anniversary.  On  that  day  the  whole  body  of  the 
knights,  and  the  people  of  the  capital,  walked  in  solemn 
procession,  with  the  grand  master  at  their  head,  to  the 
church  of  St.  John.  A  knight,  wearing  the  helmet 
and  mailed  armor  of  the  ancient  time,  bore  on  high 
the  victorious  standard  of  the  order.  A  page  by  his 
side  carried  the  superb  sword  and  poniard  presented 
by  Philip  the  Second.  As  the  procession  passed  into 
the  church,  and  the  standard  was  laid  at  the  foot  of  the 
altar,  it  was  announced  by  flourishes  of  trumpets  and 
by  peals  of  artillery  from  the  fortresses.  The  services 
were  performed  by  the  prior  of  St.  John's;  and,  while 
the  Gospel  was  read,  the  grand  master  held  the  naked 
sword  aloft,  in  token  that  the  knights  were  ever  ready 
to  do  battle  for  the  Cross.  3'  When  the  ceremony  was 
concluded,  a  fine  portrait  of  La  Valette  was  exhibited 
to  the  people ;  and  the  brethren  gazed  with  feelings 
of  reverence  on  his  majestic  lineaments,  as  on  those 
of  the  saviour  of  their  order. ^^ 

3'  "  Lorsqu'on  commence  I'Evangile,  le  Grand-Maitre  la  prend  des 
mains  du  Page  et  la  tient  toute  droite  pendant  le  terns  de  I'Evangile. 
C'est  la  seule  occasion  ou  Ton  tient  I'epee  nue  h.  I'Eglise."  Helyot, 
Hist,  des  Ordres  religieux,  torn.  iii.  p.  93. 

3»  Boisgelin,  Ancient  and  Modern  Malta,  vol.  i.  p.  35. — The  good 
knight  dwells  with  complacency  on  the  particulars  of  a  ceremony  in 
which  he  had  often  borne  a  part  liirnself.     It  recalled  to  his  mind  the 


456  SIEGE    OE  MALTA. 

But  all  this  is  changed.  The  Christians,  instead  of 
being  banded  against  the  Turk,  now  rally  in  his  defence. 
There  are  no  longer  crusades  against  the  infidel.  The 
age  of  chivalry  has  passed.  The  objects  for  which  the 
Knights  Hospitallers  were  instituted  have  long  since 
ceased  to  exist ;  and  it  was  fitting  that  the  institution, 
no  longer  needed,  should  die  with  them.  The  knights 
who  survived  the  ruin  of  their  order  became  wanderers 
in  foreign  lands.  Their  island  has  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  stranger;  and  the  flag  of  England  now 
waves  from  the  ramparts  on  which  once  floated  the 
banner  of  St.  John. 

glorious  days  of  an  order  which  he  fondly  hoped  might  one  day  be 
restored  to  its  primitive  lustre. 


CHAPTER    VI. 


DON   CARLOS. 


His  Education  and  Character. — Dangerous  Illness. —  Extravagant 
Behavior. — Opinions  respecting  him. — His  Connection  with  the 
Flemings. — Project  of  Flight. — Insane  Conduct. — Arrest. 

1567,    1568. 

We  must  now,  after  a  long  absence,  return  to  the 
shores  of  Spain,  where  events  were  taking  place  of  the 
highest  importance  to  the  future  fortunes  of  the  mon- 
archy. At  the  time  when  the  tragic  incidents  described 
in  the  preceding  Book  were  passing  in  the  Netherlands, 
others,  not  less  tragic,  if  we  may  trust  to  popular  rumor, 
were  occurring  in  the  very  palace  of  the  monarch.  I 
allude  to  the  death  of  Don  Carlos,  prince  of  Asturias, 
and  that  of  Isabella  of  Valois,  Philip's  young  and  beau- 
tiful queen.  Tlie  relations  in  which  the  two  parties 
stood  to  each  other,  their  untimely  fate,  and  the  mystery 
in  which  it  was  enveloped,  have  conspired  with  the 
sombre,  unscrupulous  character  of  Philip  to  suggest  the 
most  horrible  suspicions  of  the  cause  of  their  death. 
The  mystery  which  hung  over  them  in  their  own  time 
has  not  been  dissipated  by  the  researches  of  later  chron- 
iclers. For  that  very  reason,  it  has  proved  an  inex- 
haustible theme  for  fiction,  until  it  might  be  thought 
to  have  passed  from  the  domain  of  history  into  that  of 
romance.  It  has  been  found  especially  suited  to  the 
Philip._VoL.  II.— u        39  (457) 


458  DON  CARLOS. 

\ purposes  of  the  drama;  and  the  dramatic  literature  of 
J  Europe  contains  more  than  one  masterpiece  from  the 
'hand  of  genius,  which  displays  in  sombre  coloring  the 
loves  and  the  misfortunes  of  Carlos  and  Isabella.' 

The  time  for  discussing  so  dark  and  intricate  a  sub- 
ject had  not  arrived  while  the  Spanish  archives  were 
jealously  locked  up  even  from  native  scholars.  But 
now  that  happily  a  more  liberal  system  has  prevailed, 
and  access  has  been  given  to  the  dread  repositories  of 
the  secrets  of  the  Spanish  sovereigns,  the  time  seems  to 
have  come  for  investigating  this  mysterious  story.  And 
if  I  cannot  boast  that  I  have  been  able  to  dispel  the 
doubts  that  have  so  long  gathered  around  the  subject, 
I  may  at  least  flatter  myself  that,  with  the  materials  at 
my  command,  I  have  the  means  of  placing  the  reader 
in  a  better  point  of  view  than  has  yet  been  enjoyed  for 
surveying  the  whole  ground  and  forming  his  own  con- 
clusions. 

Don  Carlos  was  born  on  the  eighth  of  July,  1545. 
His  mother,  Mary  of  Portugal,  then  only  eighteen 
years  of  age,  died  a  few  days  after  giving  birth  to  her 
ill-fated  child.  Thus  deprived  from  the  cradle  of  a 
mother's  watchful  care,  he  experienced  almost  as  little 
of  his  father's;  for  until  Carlos  was  fourteen  years 
old  ^hilip  was  absent  most  of  the  time,  either  in  the 
Low  Countries  or  in  England.~>  The  care  of  the  child 

'  Alfieri,  Schiller,  and,  in  our  day,  Lord  John  Russell,  have,  each 
according  to  his  own  conceptions,  exhibited  the  poetic  aspect  of  the 
story  to  the  eyes  of  their  countr^-men.  The  Castilian  dramatist 
Montalvan,  in  his  "  Principe  Don  Carlos,"  written  before  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  shows  more  deference  to  historic  accu- 
racy, as  well  as  to  the  reputation  of  Isabella,  by  not  mixing  her  up  in 
any  way  with  the  fortunes  of  the  prince  of  Asturias. 


HIS  EDUCATION  AND    CHARACTER. 


459 


was  intrusted  during  the  greater  part  of  this  period 
to  Philip's  sister,  the  Regent  Joanna, — an  excellent 
woman,  but  who,  induced  probably  by  the  feeble  con- 
stitution of  Carlos,  is  said  to  have  shown  too  much 
indulgence  to  the  boy,  being  more  solicitous  to  secure 
his  bodily  health  than  to  form  his  character.  In  our 
easy  faith  in  the  miracles  claimed  for  education,  it 
sometimes  happens  that  we  charge  on  the  parent  or  the 
preceptor  the  defects  that  may  be  more  reasonably 
referred  to  the  vicious  constitution  of  the  child. 

As  Carlos  grew  older,  Philip  committed  the  care  of 
his  instruction  to  Honorato  Juan,  a  member  of  the 
emperor's  household.  He  was  a  well-trained  scholar, 
and  a  man  of  piety  as  well  as  learning ;  and  soon  after 
assuming  the  task  of  the  prince's  preceptor  he  embraced 
the  religious  profession.  The  correspondence  of  Hono- 
rato Juan  with  Philip,  then  in  Flanders,  affords  a  view 
of  the  proficiency  of  Carlos  when  eleven  or  twelve 
years  old.  The  contentment  which  the  king  evinces 
in  the  earlier  letters  diminishes  as  we  advance ;  and 
anxious  doubts  are  expressed,  as  he  gathers  the  unwel- 
come information  from  his  tutor  of  his  pupil's  indiffer- 
ence to  his  studies.* 

In  the  year  1556,  Charles  the  Fifth  stopped  some 
time  at  Valladolid,  on  his  way  to  his  cloistered  retreat 
at  Yuste.*   He  there  saw  his  grandson,  and  took  careful 

'  This  correspondence  is  printed  in  a  curious  volume,  of  the  greatest 
rarity,  entitled,  Elogios  de  Don  Honorato  Juan  (Valencia,  1659),  p- 
60,  et  seq. 

*  [On  hearing  of  the  emperor's  arrival  in  Castile,  his  grandson  had 
shown  an  extreme  desire  to  see  him,  and,  not  being  permitted  to  go 
and  meet  him,  had  sent  one  of  his  attendants  with  a  short  letter,  writ- 


46o  DON  CARLOS. 

note  of  the  boy,  the  heir  to  the  vast  dominions  which 
he  had  himself  so  recently  relinquished.  He  told  over 
his  campaigns  to  Carlos,  and  how  he  had  fled  at  Inns- 
bruck, where  he  barely  escaped  falling  into  the  hands 
of  the  enemy.  Carlos,  who  listened  eagerly,  inter- 
rupted his  grandfather,  exclaiming,  "I  never  would 
have  fled  ! ' '  Charles  endeavored  to  explain  the  neces- 
sity of  the  case ;  but  the  boy  sturdily  maintained  that 
he  never  would  have  fled, — amusing  and  indeed  de- 
lighting the  emperor,  who  saw  in  this  the  mettle  of  his 
own  earlier  days.^  Yet  Charles  was  not  blind  to  the 
defects  of  his  grandson, — to  the  wayward,  overbearing 
temper,  which  inferred  too  much  indulgence  on  the 
part  of  his  daughter  the  regent.  He  reprehended 
Carlos  for  his  want  qf  deference  to  his  aunt ;  and  he 
plainly  told  the  latter  that  if  she  would  administer 

3  "  Egli  in  collera  reiterd  con  maraviglia  et  riso  di  S.  M.  et  de" 
circumstanti,  che  mai  egli  non  saria  fuggito."  Relatione  di  Badoaro, 
MS.  

ten,  as  his  governor,  Don  Garcia  de  Toledo,  states,  without  assistance 
from  any  one, — "sin  ayudarse  de  nadie."  It  has  been  printed  in 
fac-simile  by  M.  Gachard,  and  both  the  expressions  and  the  hand- 
writing— the  latter  singularly  legible  and  in  no  respect  resembling  a 
schoolboy's  scrawl-^eom  to  disprove  the  notion  that  Don  Carlos 
was  naturally  defective  in  intelligence  and  incapable  of  instniction. 
(S.  C.  C.  M',  Yo  e  sabido  que  V.  M'  esta  en  salvamento,  y  e  holgado 
dello  infinitamente,  tanto  que  no  lo  puedo  mas  encarecer.  Suplico 
d  V.  M'  me  haga  saber  si  e  de  salir  d  recebir  a  V  M',  y  adonde.  Ay 
va  don  Pedio  Pimentel,  gentilhombre  de  mi  camara  y  mi  embaxador, 
al  qual  suplico  d  V.  M'  mande  lo  que  en  esto  se  ha  de  hazer,  para 
que  el  me  lo  escriva.  Bcso  las  manos  de  V.  M'.  En  Valladolid,  2  de 
otubre.  Muy  humilde  hijo  de  V.  M',  El  Principe.")  The  accents 
and  punctuation  have  been  added  by  M.  Gacliard,  without  the  neces- 
sity for  any  change  in  the  orthography. — Ed.] 


:i. 


HIS  EDUCATION  AND    CHARACTER.        461 

more  wholesome  correction  to  the  boy  the  nation 
would  have  reason  to  thank  her  for  it/ 

After  the  emperor  had  withdrawn  to  his  retreat,  his 
mind,  which  kept  its  hold,  as  we  have  seen,  on  all 
matters  of  public  interest  beyond  the  walls  of  the 
monastery,  still  reverted  to  his  grandson,  the  heir  of 
his  name  and  of  his  sceptre.  At  Simancas  the  corre- 
spondence is  still  preserved  which  he  carried  on  with 
Don  Garcia  de  Toledo,  a  brother  of  the  duke  of  Alva, 
who  held  the  post  of  ayo,  or  governor  of  the  prince. 
In  one  of  that  functionary's  letters,  written  in  1557, 
when  Carlos  was  twelve  years  old,  we  have  a  brief 
chronicle  of  the  distribution  of  the  prince's  time, 
somewhat  curious,  as  showing  the  outlines  of  a  royal 
education  in  that  day. 

Before  seven  in  the  morning  Carlos  rose,  and  by  half- 
past  eight  had  breakfasted,  and  attended  mass.  He 
then  went  to  his  studies,  where  he  continued  till  the 
hour  of  dinner.  What  his  studies  were  we'  are  not 
told.  One  writer  of  the  time  says,  among  other  things, 
he  read  Cicero's  Offices,  in  order  the  better  to  learn  to 
control  his  passions.^  At  eleven  he  dined.  He  then 
amused  himself  with  his  companions  by  playing  at 
quoits,  or  at  trucos,  a  kind  of  billiards,  or  in  fencing, 
and  occasionally  riding.  At  half-past  three  came  a 
light  repast,  the  meritnda ;  after  which  he  listened  to 
reading,  or,  if  the  weather  was  fine,  strolled  in  the 

4  "  Reprehendio  al  Principe  su  nieto  su  poca  mesura  i  mucha  desen- 
boltura  con  que  vivia  i  trataba  con  su  tia,  i  encomend61a  su  correccion, 
diziendo  era  en  lo  q  mas  podia  obligar  a  todos."  Cabrera,  Filipe 
Segundo,  lib.  ii.  cap.  11. 

5  "  Ne  attende  ad  altro  che  a  leggirli  gli  officii  di  M.  Tullio  per 
acquetare  quel  troppo  ardenti  desiderii."    Relatione  di  Badoaro,  MS. 

39* 


462  DON  CARLOS. 

fields.  In  the  evening  he  supped ;  and  at  half-past  nine, 
having  gone  through  the  prayers  of  his  rosary,  he  went 
to  bed,  where,  as  his  ayo  says,  he  usually  made  but  one 
nap  of  it  till  the  morning.  It  was  certainly  a  primitive 
way  of  life,  in  which  more  regard  seems  to  have  been 
had  to  the  cravings  of  the  body  than  of  the  mind,  and 
as  regular  in  its  routine  as  the  monastic  life  of  his 
grandfather  at  Yuste.  Yet  Don  Garcia  does  not  fail 
to  intimate  his  discontent  with  the  want  of  interest 
shown  by  his  pupil  not  merely  in  his  studies,  but  in 
fencing,  cane-playing,  and  other  manly  exercises,  so 
essential  to  the  education  of  a  cavalier  of  that  day.'' 
He  notices,  at  the  same  time,  the  first  symptoms  of 
those  bilious  attacks  which  already  menaced  the  prince's 
.constitution,  and  so  effectually  undermined  it  in  later 
years.' 

In  another  epistle,  Don  Garcia  suggests  that  it  might 
be  well  for  the  emperor  to  allow  Carlos  to  visit  him  at 
Yuste,  trusting  that  his  grandfather's  authority  would 
accomplish  what  his  own  had  failed  to  do.*  But  this 
suggestion  found  no  favor,  apparently,  with  the  royal 
recluse,  who  probably  was  not  disposed  to  do  penance 
himself  by  receiving  so  troublesome  an  inmate  in  his 

6  "  En  lo  del  estudio  esta  poco  aprovechado,  porque  lo  haze  de 
mala  gana  y  ansy  mesmo  los  otros  exercicios  de  jugar  y  esgremyr, 
que  para  todo  as  menester  premya."  Carta  de  Garcia  de  Toledo  al 
Emperador,  27  de  Agosto,  1557,  MS. 

1  "  Hasta  agora  no  se  que  los  medicos  ayan  tratado  de  dar  ninguna 
cosa  al  principe  para  la  colera,  ny  yo  lo  consintiera  hazer,  sin  dar 
primero  quenta  dello  a  vuestra  magestad."     Ibid. 

8  "  Dcseo  mucho  que  V.  M.  fuese  servido  que  el  principe  diese  una 
buelta  por  alld  para  velle  por  que  entendidos  los  impedimentos  que  en 
su  edad  ticne  mandasse  V.  M.  lo  que  fuera  de  la  horden  con  que  yo 
le  sirvo  se  deba  mudar."    Del  mismo  al  mismo,  13  de  Abril,  1558,  MS. 


HIS  EDUCATION  AND    CHARACTER.         463 

family.  The  emperor's  own  death,  which  occurred 
shortly  after  this,  spared  him  the  misery  of  witnessing 
the  disastrous  career  of  his  grandson. 

The  reports  of  the  Venetian  ministers — those  precious 
documents  that  contain  so  much  instruction  in  respect 
to  matters  both  of  public  and  domestic  interest  — 
make  occasional  allusions  to  the  prince  at  this  period. 
Their  notices  are  by  no  means  flattering.  They  de- 
scribe Carlos  as  of  a  reckless,  impatient  temper,  fierce, 
and  even  cruel,  in  his  disposition, »  and  so  arrogant  as 
to  be  unwilling  to  stand  with  his  head  uncovered,  for 
any  long  time,  in  the  presence  of  the  emperor  or  his 
father."  Yet  this  harsh  picture  is  somewhat  redeemed 
by  other  traits;  for  he  was  generous,  though  to  a  degree 
of  prodigality, — giving  away  his  trinkets  and  jewels, 
even  his  clothes,  in  default  of  money.  He  had  a  fear- 
less heart,  with  a  strong  passion  for  a  military  life.  He 
was  far  from  frivolous  in  his  tastes,  despising  buffoons, 
and  saying  himself  so  many  good  things  that  his  tutor 
carefully  made  a  collection  of  them."     This  portrait 

9  So  cruel,  according  to  the  court  gossip  picked  up  by  Badoaro, 
that,  when  hares  and  other  game  were  brought  to  him,  he  would 
occasionally  amuse  himself  by  roasting  them  alive!  — "  Dimostra 
havere  un  animo  fiero,  et  tra  gli  effetti  che  si  raccontano  uno  e,  che 
alle  volte,  che  dalla  caccia  gli  viene  portato  o  lepre  o  simile  animale, 
si  diletta  di  vedirli  arrostire  vivi."     Relatione  de  Badoaro,  MS. 

JO  "  Da  segno  di  dovere  essere  superbissimo,  perche  non  poteva 
sofferire  di  stare  lungamente  ne  innanzi  al  padre  ne  avo  con  la  ber- 
retta  in  mano,  et  chiama  il  padre  fratello,  et  1'  avO  padre."     Ibid. 

"  "  Dice  a  tutti  i  propositi  tante  cose  argute  che  '1  suo  ministro  ne 
raccolse  un  libretto."  Ibid. — Another  contemporary  also  notices  the 
precocious  talents  of  the  boy,  as  shown  in  his  smart  sayings  :  "  Dexo 
de  contar  las  gracias  que  tiene  en  dichos  maravillosos  que  andan  por 
boca  de  todos  desparzidos,  dexo  de  contar  lo  que  haze  para  provar  lo 


/ 


464  DON  CARLOS. 

of  a  youth  scarcely  fourteen  years  old  seems  as  highly 
overcharged,  whether  for  good  or  for  evil,  as  portraits 
of  princes  usually  are.* 

que  dize."  Cordero,  Promptuario  de  Medallas,  ap.  Castro,  Historia 
de  los  Protestantes  Espaiioles,  p.  328. 


*  [The  most  trustworthy  description  of  the  person  and  character 
of  Don  Carlos  is  probably  that  given  in  a  letter  of  the  baron  von 
Dietrichstein,  imperial  minister  at  the  court  of  Madrid,  who  had 
received  a  particular  charge  to  inquire  into  the  habits  and  moral  and 
physical  qualities  of  the  prince.  This  report,  written  in  June,  1564, 
when  Carlos  had  but  recently  recovered  from  one  of  his  attacks  of 
fever,  describes  him  as  mot  disagreeable  in  features,  though  exceed- 
ingly pale.  His  figure  was  not  only  bad  but  deformed,  one  shoulder 
being  higher  and  one  leg  longer  than  the  other,  with  a  sunken  chest, 
and  a  slight  hump  on  the  back.  His  voice  was  thin,  and  he  expressed 
himself  with  difficulty,  though  not  unintelligibly.  ^'  He  spoke  to  me 
several  times,  and,  according  to  his  habit,  asked  me  many  questions, 
which,  however,  contrary  to  what  I  had  been  led  to  expect,  seemed  to 
me  very  pertinent."  In  regard  to  other  points  the  minister  was  unable 
to  write  from  personal  observation.  He  had  received  the  usual 
accounts  of  the  prince's  violent  and  obstinate  temper,  but  thought 
that  many  of  his  defects  might  be  attributed  to  ill  health,  or  might 
have  been  corrected  by  education,  as  he  was  said  to  have  an  excellent 
memory  and  much  acuteness,  the  evidences  oftTiiTTatter  quality  being 
the  sharp  sayings  which""  he  was  only  too  apt  to  let  drop.  fTie  was 
naturally  very  gluttonous,  but  had  been  restricted  to  a  regimen,  being 
allowed  only  a  single  dish,  consisting  of  a  boiled  capon  seasoned  with 
the  juice  of  a  leg  of  mutton.  His  only  drink  was  water,  as  he  had  an 
aversion  to  wine.  >  ^^He  is  extremely  devout  {gottsforchtig),  and  a 
great  lover  of  justice  and  of  truth ;  he  cannot  endure  falsehood,  or 
any  one  whom  he  has  ever  found  guilty  of  it,  while  he  makes  much 
of  men  who  are  worthy,  upright,  virtuous,  honorable,  and  distin- 
guished. He  exacts  punctual  service,  and  shows  favor  and  affection 
to  those  from  whom  he  receives  it."  ^As  to  a  point  on  which  the 
Emperor  was  very  solicitous  for  information, — "an  ad  procreandam 
prolem  aptus  vel  inaptus  sit," — no  one  could  speak  with  confidence: 
"  nemo  est  qui  aliquid  certi  hac  in  re  possit  affirmare."  Koch, 
Quellen  zur  Geschichte  des  Kaisers  Maximilian  H. — Ed.] 


ins  EDUCATION  AND    CHARACTER.         465 

Yet  the  state  of  the  prince's  health  may  be  fairly 
mentioned  in  extenuation  of  his  defects, — at  least  of 
his  infirmity  of  temper.  For  his  bilious  temperament 
already  began  to  show  itself  in  the  form  of  intermittent 
feygr.  with  which  he  continued  to  be  afflicted  for  the 
remainder  of  hisjife.  UndeT  thlslIepresslng~di5Dfder 
his  spirits  sank,  his  body  wasted  away,  and  his  strength 
failed  to  such  a  degree  that  it  was  feared  he  might  not 
reach  the  age  of  manhood." 

In  the  beginning  of  1560,  Isabella  of  France  came  to 
Castile,  and  on  the  second  of  February  was  united  to 
Philip.  By  the  preliminaries  of  the  treaty  of  Cateau- 
Cambresis,  her  hand  had  been  assigned  to  Don  Carlos ; 
but  Mary  Tudor  having  died  before  the  ratification  of 
the  treaty,  the  name  of  the  father  was  substituted  for 
that  of  the  son,  and  the  royal  maiden  was  affianced  to 
Philip. 

The  marriage-ceremony  was  performed,  with  great 
splendor,  at  Toledo.  Carlos  was  present ;  and,  as  he 
gazed  on  the  beautiful  bride,  it  is  not  improbable  that 
some  feelings  of  resentment  may  have  mingled  with 
regret  when  he  thought  of  the  unceremonious  manner 
in  which  her  hand  had  been  transferred  from  him  to. 
his  father.  But  we  should  be  slow  to  believe  that 
Isabella  could  have  felt  any  thing  like  the  tender 
sentiment  that  romantic  historians  have  attributed  to 
her,  for  a  boy  of  fourteen,  who  had  so  few  personal 
attractions  to  recommend  him. 

'*  "  Le  pauvre  prince  est  si  bas  et  extenue,  il  va  d'heure  a  heure 
tant  affoiblissant,  que  les  plus  sages  de  ceste  court  en  ont  bien  petite 
esperance."    L'feveque  de  Limoges  au  Roi,  i"  Mars,  1559,  ap.  Nego- 
ciations  relatives  au  Rfegne  de  Fran9ois  II.,  p.  291. 
U* 


466  DON  CARLOS. 

On  the  twenty-second  of  the  same  month,  Carlos  was 
formally  recognized  by  the  cortes  of  Castile  as  heir  to 
the  crown.  On  this  occasion  the  different  members  of 
the  royal  family  were  present,  together  with  the  great 
nobles  and  the  representatives  of  the  commons.  The 
prince  rode  in  the  procession  on  a  white  horse  superbly 
caparisoned,  while  his  dress,  resplendent  with  jewels, 
formed  a  sad  contrast  to  the  sallow  and  sickly  coun- 
tenance of  its  wearer. '3  He  performed  his  part  of  the 
ceremony  with  dignity  and  feeling.  When  Joanna,  his 
aunt,  and  his  uncle,  Don  John  of  Austria,  after  taking 
the  oath,  would  have  knelt,  according  to  custom,  to 
kiss  his  hand,  he  would  not  allow  it,  but  affectionately 
raised  and  embraced  them.  <^But  when  the  duke  of  Alva 
inadvertently  omitted  the  latter  act  of  obeisance,  the 
prince  received  him  so  coldly  that  the  haughty  noble- 
man, rebuked  by  his  manner,  perceived  his  error,  and 
humbly  acknowledged  it.'*> 

In  the  autumn  of  the  following  year,  with  the  hope 
of  mending  his  health  by  change  of  air,  Carlos  removed 
to  Alcala  de  Henares,  famous  for  its  university  founded 
by  the  great  Ximenes.  He  had  for  his  companions 
two  youths,  both  destined  to  a  conspicuous  part  in  the 
history  of  the  times.  One  was  Philip's  illegitimate 
brother,  Don  John  of  Austria,  the  hero  of  Lepanto ; 
the  other  was  the  prince's  cousin,  Alexander  Farnese, 
son  of  Margaret  of  Parma,  who  was  now  in  the  course 

'3"Delante  de  la  Princesa  venia  don  Carlos  a  su  juramento  con 
mal  calor  de  quartanaria  en  un  cavallo  bianco  con  rico  guamimiento 
i  gualdrapa  de  oro  i  plata  bordado  sobre  tela  de  ore  parda,  como  el 
vestido  galan  con  muchos  botones  de  perlas  i  diamantes."  Cabrera, 
Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  v.  cap.  7. 
•  '•*  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


DANGEROUS  ILLNESS.  467 

of  training  which  was  one  day  to  make  him  the  greatest 
captain  of  his  time.  The  three  boys  were  nearly  of  the 
same  age ;  but  in  their  accomplishments  and  personal 
appearance  the  uncle  and  the  cousin  afforded  as  strong 
a  contrast  to  their  royal  kinsman  as  in  the  brilliant 
fortunes  that  awaited  them.'^ 

Carlos  had  not  been  at  Alcala  many  months  before 
he  met  with  an  accident  which  was  attended  with  most 
disastrous  consequences.  One  evening  in  April,  1562, 
as  he  was  descending  a  flight  of  stairs,  he  made  a  mis- 
step, and  fell  headlong  down  five  or  six  stairs  against 
a  door  at  the  bottom  of  the  passage.'*  He  was  taken 
up  senseless,  and  removed  to  his  chamber,  where  his 
physicians  were  instantly  summoned,  and  the  necessary 
remedies  applied. '^  At  first  it  seemed  only  a  simple 
contusion  on  the  head,  and  the  applications  of  the 

»5  Strada,  in  a  parallel  which  he  has  drawn  of  the  royal  youths, 
gives  the  palm  to  Don  John  of  Austria.  His  portrait  of  Carlos  is  as 
little  flattering  in  regard  to  his  person  as  to  his  character:  "  Carolus, 
praster  colorem  et  capillum,  ceteriim  corpore  mendosus ;  quippe 
humero  elatior,  et  tibia  altera  longior  erat ;  nee  minus  dehonesta- 
mentum  ab  indole  feroci  et  contumaci."  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i. 
p.  609. 

'^  According  to  Guibert,  the  French  ambassador,  Carlos  was  engaged 
in  a  love-adventure  when  he  met  with  his  fall, — having  descended  this 
dark  stairway  in  search  of  the  young  daughter  of  the  porter  of  the 
garden.  See  Raumer,  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i. 
p.  119. 

'7  "  Este  dia  despues  de  haber  comido  queriendo  su  Alteza  bajar  por 
una  escalera  escura  y  de  ruines  pasos  echo  el  pie  derecho  en  vacio,  y 
dio  una  vuelta  sobre  todo  el  cuerpo,  y  asi  cayo  de  cuatro  6  cinco 
escalones.  Dio  con  la  cabeza  un  gran  golpe  en  una  puerta  cerrada, 
y  quedo  la  cabeza  abajo  y  los  piesarriba."  Relacion  de  la  Enfermedad 
del  Principe  por  el  Doctor  Olivares,  Documentos  ineditos,  torn.  xv. 
P-  554- 


468  DON  CARLOS. 

doctors  had  the  desired  effect.  But  soon  the  symptoms 
became  more  alarming.  Fever  set  in.  He  was  attacked 
by  erysipelas ;  his  head  swelled  to  an  enormous  size ; 
he  became  totally  blind;  and  this  was  followed  by 
delirium.  It  now  appeared  that  the  skull  was  frac- 
tured. The  royal  physicians  were  called  in ;  and  after 
a  stormy  consultation,  in  which  the  doctors  differed,  as 
usual,  as  to  the  remedies  to  be  applied,  it  was  deter- 
mined to  trepan  the  patient.  The  operation  was 
carefully  performed ;  a  part  of  the  bone  of  the  skull 
was  removed;  but  relief  was  not  obtained.* 

Meanwhile,  the  greatest  alarm  spread  through  the 
country  at  the  prospect  of  losing  the  heir-apparent. 
Processions  were  everywhere  made  to  the  churches, 
prayers  were  put  up,  pilgrimages  were  vowed,  and  the 
discipline. was  unsparingly  administered  by  the  fanatical 
multitude,  who  hoped  by  self-inflicted  penance  to  avert 
the  wrath  of  Heaven  from  the  land.  Yet  all  did  not 
avail. 

We  have  a  report  of  the  case  from  the  pen  of  Dr. 
Olivares,  the  prince's  own  physician.  Some  of  the 
remedies  were  of  a  kind  that  would  look  strange 
enough  if  reported  by  a  medical  journal  of  our  own 
day.  After  all  efforts  of  professional  skill  had  failed, 
and  the  unguent  of  a  Moorish  doctor,  famous  among 
the  people,  had  been  rubbed  on  the  body  without 
success,  it  was  resolved  to  make  a  direct  appeal  to 
Heaven.      In  the   monastery  of  Jesus  Maria  lay  the 

*  [There  were  nine  physicians  and  surgeons  in  attendance  on  the 
prince,  among  them  the  celebrated  Vesalius,  who  seems,  by  a  letter 
from  the  court,  to  have  had  an  important  share  in  the  cure.  See 
Gachard,  Don  Carlos  et  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i. — Ed.] 


DANGEROUS  ILLNESS.  469 

bones  of  a  holy  Franciscan,  Fray  Diego,  who  had  died    \ 
a  hundred  years  before,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  the 
Fourth,  in  the  odor  of  sanctity.     King  Philip  and  his 
court  went  in  solemn  procession  to  the  church  ',  and  in 
their  presence   the  mouldering  remains  of  the  good 
father,  still  sweet  to  the  nostrils,  as  we  are  told,  were 
taken  from  their  iron  coffin   and  transported  to  the 
prince's  apartment.     They  were  there  laid  on  his  bed  ;    y 
and  the  cloth  that  wrapped  the  skull  of  the  dead  man  / 
was  placed  on  the  forehead  of  Carlos.'^     Fortunately,| 
the  delirious  state  of  the  patient  prevented  the  shockl 
that  might  otherwise  have  been  given  to  his  senses.         7 
That  very  night  the  friar  appeared  to  Carlos  in  his       / 
sleep.     He  was  muffled  in  his  Franciscan  robe,  with  a 
green  girdle  about  his  waist,  and  a  cross  of  reeds  in 
his  hand;  and  he  mildly  bade  him  "be  of  good  cheer,      I 
for  that  he  would  certainly  recover."     From  this  time, 
as  the  physician  who  reports  the  case  admits,  the  patient        \ 
began  speedily  to  mend.     The  fever  subsided,  his  head  \ 

returned  to  its  natural  dimensions,  his  eyes  were  restored  \ 

to  sight.    At  the  end  of  something  less  than  two  months  \ 

from  the  date  of  the  accident,  Carlos,  who  had  shown  a 
marvellous  docility  throughout  his  illness,''  was  enabled  i 

to  walk  into  the  adjoining  apartment  and  embrace  his 
father,  who  during  the  critical  period  of  his  son's  ill- 
's Ferreras,  Hist,  de  I'Espagne,  torn.  ix.  p.  429. 
'9  Dr.  Olivares  bears  emphatic  testimony  to  this  virtue,  little  to  have 
been  expected  in  his  patient :  "  Lo  que  4  su  salud  cumplia  hizo  de  la 
misma  suerte,  siendo  tan  obediente  d  los  remedies  que  k  todos  espan- 
taba  que  por  fuertes  y  recios  que  fuesen  nunca  los  reuso,  dntes  todo 
el  tiempo  que  estuvo  en  su  acuerdo  el  mismo  los  pedia,  lo  cual  fu6 
grande  ayuda  para  la  salud  que  Dios  le  dio."  Documentos  in^ditos, 
torn.  XV.  p.  571. 

Philip.— Vol.  II.  40 


470 


DON  CARLOS. 


ness  had  established  his  residence  at  Alcala,  showing 
the  solicitude  natural  to  a  parent  in  such  an  extremity.* 
The  merit  of  the  cure  was  of  course  referred  to  Fray- 
Diego.^"  An  account  of  the  miracle,  duly  authenti- 
cated, was  transmitted  to  Rome ;  and  the  holy  man, 
on  the  application  of  Philip,  received  the  honors  of 
canonization  from  the  pontiff.  The  claims  of  the  new 
saint  to  the  credit  of  achieving  the  cure  were  confi- 
dently asserted  by  the  Castilian  chroniclers  of  that  and 
succeeding  ages  ',  nor  have  I  met  with  any  one  hardy 
enough  to  contest  them,  unless  it  be  Dr.  Olivares  him- 
self, who,  naturally  jealous  of  his  professional  honor, 
intimated  his  conviction — this  was  before  the  canoniza- 

=~  Another  rival  appeared,  to  contest  the  credit  of  the  cure  with  the 
■kQlies.xiiLjVay  Diego.  This  was  Our  Lady  of  Atocha,  the  patroness 
of  Madrid,  whose  image,  held  in  the  greatest  veneration  by  Philip  the 
Second,  was  brought  to  the  chamber  of  Carlos  soon  after  the  skeleton 
of  the  holy  friar.  As  it  was  after  the  patient  had  decidedly  begun  to 
mend,  there  seems  to  be  the  less  reason  for  the  chroniclers  of  Our 
Lady  of  Atocha  maintaining,  as  they  sturdily  do,  her  share  in  the 
cure.  (Perada,  La  Madofla  de  Madrid  (Valladolid,  1604),  p.  151.) 
The  veneration  for  the  patroness  of  Madrid  has  continued  to  the 
present  day.  A  late  journal  of  that  capital  states  that  the  queen, 
accompanied  by  her  august  consort  and  the  princess  of  Asturias, 
went,  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  March,  1854,  '"^  solemn  procession  to 
the  church,  to  decorate  the  image  with  the  collar  of  the  Golden  Fleece. 


•■■-■  [According  to  a  letter  of  the  Florentine  minister,  who  had  his 
information  from  an  eye-witness,  the  spectacle  of  the  father's  grief 
was  even  more  affecting  than  the  condition  of  the  son.  When,  how- 
ever, it  was  thought  that  the  latter  had  only  a  few  hours  to  live, 
Philip  yielded  to  the  entreaties  of  his  counsellors  that  he  should  leave 
Alcala,  and  set  out  in  the  middle  of  the  niglit,  having  Jirst  given 
directions  to  the  duke  of  Alva  and  the  count  of  Feria  in  regard  to  the 
manner  of  conducting  the  obsequies.  See  Gachard,  Don  Carlos  et 
Philippe  IL,  torn,  i.— ED.] 


HIS  EXTRA  VA  GANT  BEIIA  VI OR.  47 1 

tion — that,  with  some  allowance  for  the  good  wrought  ~^ 

by  Fray  Diego's  intercession  and  the  prayers  of  the 
righteous,  the  recovery  of  the  prince  was  mainly  to  be     1    ^.nCj 
referred  to  the  skill  of  his  physicians.  ='  ^OM-^'  QO^'W^^ 

But  the  recovery  of  Carlos  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  so  complete  as  was  at  first  thought.  There  is 
good  reason  to  suppose  that  the  blow  on  his  head  did 
some  permanent  injury  to  the  brain.*  At  least  this  may 
be  inferred  from  the  absurd  eccentricities  of  his  subse- 
quent conduct  and  the  reckless  manner  in  which  he 
abandoned  himself  to  the  gratification  of  his  passions. 
In  1565,  on  his  recovery  from  one  of  those  attacks  of 
quartan  fever  which  still  beset  him,  Philip  remarked, 

"  "  Con  todo  eso  tomando  propriamente  el  nombre  de  milagro,  a  mi 
juicio  no  lo  fue,  porque  el  Principe  se  euro  con  los  remedios  naturales 
y  ordinaries,  con  los  cuales  se  suelen  ciirar  otros  de  la  misma  enferme- 
dad  estando  tanto  y  mas  peligrosos."  Documentos  ineditos,  tom.  xv, 
P-  570-  

*  [This  is  expressly  stated  by  Cabrera;  but  M.  Gachard  considers 
the  assertion  completely  disproved  by  the  tenor  of  the  will  executed 
by  Carlos  in  May,  1564,  a  document  which  he  characterizes  as  full  of 
sense  and  good  feeling  and  breathing  the  noblest  and  most  generous 
sentiments,  while  its  interest  is  enhanced  by  its  being  "  the  sole  monu- 
ment which  we  have  of  the  mind,  thoughts,  and  character  of  Don 
Carlos."  It  is  a  very  long  instrument,  prepared,  under  the  prince's 
directions,  by  Hernan  Suarez,  a  legist  of  Toledo,  with  injunctions  to 
keep  it  strictly  secret.  The  most  noticeable  clauses  are  those  in  which 
the  testator  expresses  his  strong  affection  for  his  former  tutor,  Hono- 
rato  Juan,  his  desire  that  Martin  de  Cordova  may  be  suitably  rewarded 
for  his  heroic  defence  of  Mazarquivir,  and  his  intention  that  his  two 
slaves  Diego  and  Juan,  whom  he  has  wished  to  have  instructed  in  the 
art  of  sculpture,  shall,  if  they  conduct  themselves  well,  be  declared 
free ;  but  if  their  characters  shall  prove  to  be  such  that  liberty  would 
not  be  an  advantage  to  them,  he  bequeaths  one  to  the  bishop  of 
Osma  (Honorato  Juan)  and  the  other  to  the  marquis  of  Tdvara,  with 
an  injunction  for  their  good  treatment. —  Ed.] 


472 


DON  CARLOS. 


with  a  sigh,  to  the  French  minister,  St.  Sulpice,  "that 
he  hoped  his  repeated  warnings  might  restrain  the 
prince,  for  the  future,  from  making  such  fatal  inroads 
on  his  health. ' ' ""  But  the  unfortunate  young  man 
profited  as  little  by  such  warnings  as  by  his  own  expe- 
rience. Persons  about  the  court  at  this  period  have 
left  us  many  stories  of  his  mad  humors,  which  formed 
the  current  scandal  at  Madrid.  Brantome,  who  was 
there  in(^i5647)says  that  Carlos  would  patrol  the  streets 
with  a  number  of  young  nobles  of  the  same  lawless 
habits  with  himself,  assaulting  the  passengers  with  drawn 
swords,  kissing  the  women,  and  insulting  even  ladies  of 
the  highest  rank  with  the  most  opprobrious  epithets. "^ 

It  was  the  fashion  for  the  young  gallants  of  the 
court  to  wear  very  large  boots.  Carlos  had  his  made 
even  larger  than  usual,  to  accommodate  a  pair  of  small 
pistols.  Philip,  in  order  to  prevent  the  mischievous 
practice,  ordered  his  son's  boots  to  be  made  of  smaller 
dimensions.  But  when  the  bootmaker  brought  them  to 
the  palace,  Carlos,  in  a  rage,  gave  him  a  beating,  and 
then,  ordering  the  leather  to  be  cut  in  pieces  and 
stewed,  he  forced  the  unlucky  mechanic  to  swallow 
this  unsavory  fricassee — as  much  as  he  could  get  down 
of  it — on  the  spot.''* 

="  Raumer,  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  132. 

*3  "  II  aymoit  fort  \  ribler  le  pave,  et  faire  \  coups  d'espee,  fust  de 
jour,  fust  de  nuit,  car  il  avoit  avec  luy  dix  ou  douze  enfans  d'honneur 
dcs  plusgrandes  maisonsd'Espagne.  .  .  .  Quand  il  alloit  par  les  rues 
quclquc  belle  dame,  et  fust  elle  des  plus  grandes  du  pays,  il  la  prenoit 
ct  la  baisoit  par  force  devant  tout  le  monde ;  il  Tappelloit  putain, 
bagasse,  chienne,  et  force  autres  injures  leur  disoit-il."  Brantome, 
ffiuvies,  tom.  i.  p.  323. 

24  "  Dio  un  bofeton  a  Don  Pedro  Manuel,  i  guisadas  i  picadas  en 


HIS  EXTRAVAGANT  BEHAVIOR. 


473 


On  one  occasion  he  made  a  violent  assault  on  his 
governor,  Don  Garcia  de  Toledo,  for  some  slight  cause 
of  offence.  On  another,  he  would  have  thrown  his 
chamberlain,  Don  Alonzo  de  Cordova,  out  of  the  win- 
dow. These  noblemen  complained  to  Philip,  and  be- 
sought him  to  release  them  from  a  service  where  they 
were  exposed  to  affronts  which  they  could  not  resent. 
The  king  consented,  transferring  them  to  his  own  ser- 
vice, and^ppointed  Ruy  Gomez  de  Silva,  prince  of 
Eboli,  his  favorite  minister,  the  governor  of  Carlos.  ^sp> 

But  the  prince  was  no  respecter  of  persons.  Cardi- 
nal Espinosa,  president  of  the  Council  of  Castile,  and 
afterwards  grand  inquisitor,  banished  a  player  named 
Cisneros  from  the  palace,  where  he  was  to  have  per- 
formed that  night  for  the  prince's  diversion.     It  was 

menudas  pie9as  hizo  comer  las  votas  al  menestral."  Cabrera,  Filipe 
Segundo,  lib.  vii.  cap.  22. — De  Foix,  a  French  architect  employed  on 
the  Escorial  at  this  time,  informed  the  historian  De  Thou  of  the 
prince's  habit  of  wearing  extremely  large  leggings,  or  boots,  for  the 
purpose  mentioned  in  the  text:  "  Nam  et  scloppetulos  binos  summa 
arte  fabricatos  caligis,  quae  amplissimse  de  more  gentis  in  usu  sunt, 
eum  gestare  solitum  resciverat."  (Historise  sui  Temporis,  lib.  41.) 
I  cite  the  original  Latin,  as  the  word  caligcB  has  been  wrongly  rendered 
by  the  French  translator  into  culottes fi 

=s  Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  vii.  cap.  22. 


*  [De  Castro  (Hist,  de  los  Protestantes  Espaiioles)  considers  the 
story  of  Carlos  having  treated  the  bootmaker  in  the  manner  described 
.is  a  calumny  invented  by  his  father's  ministers.  It  may  seem  a  more 
probable  supposition  that  it  was  a  popular  exaggeration  of  some  inci- 
dent characteristic  enough  of  an  irritable  and  exacting  but  not  actually 
frenzied  nature.  The  extravagances  of  language  related,  with  more 
or  less  truth,  by  Brantome,  might  be  similarly  explained.  "  Whatever 
he  has  on  his  heart,"  writes  the  imperial  minister,  "  he  utters  without 
resei-ve,  indifferent  as  to  whom  it  hits." — Ed.] 
40* 


474  ^^^  CARLOS. 

probably  by  Philip's  orders.  But,  however  that  may 
be,  Carlos,  meeting  the  cardinal,  seized  him  roughly 
by  the  collar,  and,  laying  his  hand  on  his  poniard, ^ex- 
claimed, "You  scurvy  priest,  do  you  dare  to  prevent 
Cisneros  from  playing  before  me  ?  By  the  life  of  my 
father,  I  will  kill  you!"^  The  trembling  prelate,* 
throwing  himself  on  his  knees,  was  too  happy  to  escape 
with  his  life  from  the  hands  of  the  infuriated  prince. 
r-l  Whether  the  latter  had  his  way  in  the  end,  in  regard  to 
the  comedian,  is  not  stated.  But  the  stuff  of  which 
a  grand  inquisitor  is  made  is  not  apt  to  be  of  the 
yielding  sort. 

A  more  whimsical  anecdote  is  told  us  by  Nobili,  the 
Tuscan  ambassador  then  resident  at  the  court.  Carlos, 
having  need  of  money,  requested  a  merchant,  named 
Grimaldo,  to  advance  him  the  sum  of  fifteen  hundred 
ducats.  The  money-lender  readily  consented,  thanking 
the  prince  for  the  favor  done  him,  and  adding,  in  the 
usual  grandiloquent  vein  of  the  Castilian,  that  "all  he 
had  was  at  his  disposal."^  Carlos  took  him  at  his 
word,  and  forthwith  demanded  a  hundred  thousand 
ducats.     In  vain   poor  Grimaldo,    astounded   by  the 

26  "Curilla  vos  os  atreveis  a  mi,  no  dexando  venir  a  servirme  Cis- 
neros? por  vida  de  mi  padre  que  os  tengo  de  matar."  Cabrera, 
Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  vii.  cap.  22. 

=7  "  II  qual  Niccolo  lo  fece  subito  et  co'  parole  di  Complimento  reiide 
gfratie  k  sua  Altezza  offerendoli  sempre  tutto  quel  che  per  lui  si 
poteva."  Lettera  di  Nobili,  Ambasciatore  dei  Granduca  di  Toscagna 
al  Re  Pliilippo,  24  di  Luglio,  1567,  MS. 


*  [Espinosa  was  not  at  this  time  either  a  bishop  or  a  cardinal.  He 
received  the  hat  and  was  appointed  to  the  see  of  Siguenza  in  the 
spring  of  1568,  during  the  imprisonment  of  Don  Carlos.  Gachard, 
Don  Carlos  et  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i. — Ed.] 


HIS  DISPOSITION. 


475 


request,  protested  that  **it  would  ruin  his  credit;  that 
what  he  had  said  was  only  words  of  compliment." 
Carlos  replied,  ''he  had  no  right  to  bandy  compli- 
ments with  princes ;  and,  if  he  did  not  in  four-and- 
twenty  hours  pay  the  money  to  the  last  real,  he  and 
his  family  would  have  cause  to  rue  it."  It  was  not  till 
after  much  negotiation  that  Ruy  Gomez  succeeded  in 
prevailing  on  the  prince  to  be  content  with  the  more 
modest  sum  of  sixty  thousand  ducats,  which  was  ac- 
cordingly furnished  by  the  unfortunate  merchant.''* 
The  money  thus  gained,  according  to  Nobili,  was 
squandered  as  suddenly  as  it  was  got. 

There  are,  happily,  some  touches  of  light  to  relieve 
the  shadows  with  which  the  portrait  is  charged.  Tie- 
polo,  who  was  ambassador  from  Venice  at  the  court 
of  Madrid  in  1567,  when  Carlos  was  twenty-two  years 
old,  gives  us  some  account  of  the  prince.  He  admits 
his  arrogant  and  fiery  temper,  but  commends  his  love 
of  truth,  and,  what  we  should  hardly  have  expected, 
the  earnestness  with  which  he  engaged  in  his  devo- 
tions. He  was  exceedingly  charitable,  asking,  ''Who 
would  give,  if  princes  did  not?"^  He  was  splendid 
in  his  way  of  living,  making  the  most  liberal  recom- 
pense not  only  to  his  own  servants,  but  to  the  king's, 
who  were  greatly  attached  to  him. 3°    He  was  ambitious 

28  "  Ci  si  messe  di  mezzo  Ruigomes  et  molti  altri  n^  si  h  mai  possuto 
quietar'  fin  tanto  che  Niccolo  no"  li  ha  prestato  sessantamila  scudi  co' 
sua  polizza  senza  altro  assegniamento."     Lettera  di  Nobili,  MS. 

=9  "  Mostra  di  esser  molto  religioso  solicitando  come  fa  le  prediche 
et  divini  officii,  anzi  in  questo  si  pud  dir  che  eccede  1'  honesto,  et  suol 
dire,  Chi  debbe  far  Elemosine,  se  non  la  danno  i  Prencipi  ?"  Relatione 
di  Tiepolo,  MS. 

3°  "  !fe  splendetissimo  in  tutte  le  cose  et  massime  nel  beneficiar  chi 


476  DON  CARLOS. 

of  taking  part  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairspand 
was  sorely  discontented  when  excluded  from  them — as 
seems  to  have  been  usually  the  case — ^by  his  father. 3' 

It  was  certainly  to  the  prince's  credit  that  he  was 
able  to  inspire  those  who  approached  him  most  nearly 
with  strong  feelings  of  personal  attachment.  Among 
these  were  his  aunt  Joanna,  the  regent,  and  the  queen, 
Isabella,  who,  regarding  him  with  an  interest  justified 
by  the  connection,  was  desirous  of  seeing  him  married 
to  her  own  sister.  His  aunt  Mary  and  her  husband, 
the  Emperor  Maximilian,  also  held  Carlos,  whom  they 
had  known  in  early  days,  in  the  kindest  remembrance, 
and  wished  to  secure  his  hand  for  their  eldest  daughter. 

lo  serve:  II  che  fa  cosi  largamente  che  necessita  ad  amarlo  anco  i 
servitori  del  Padre."    Relatione  di  Tiepolo,  MS. 

31  "  fe  curioso  nel  intendere  i  negozii  del  stato,  ne  i  quali  s'intro- 
metterebbe  volontieri,  et  procura  di  saper  quello  che  tratta  il  Padre, 
et  che  egli  asconde  gli  fa  grande  offesa."  Ibid. — Granvelle,  in  one 
of  his  letters,  notices  with  approbation  this  trait  in  the  character  of 
Carlos :  "  Many  are  pleased  with  the  prince,  others  not.  I  think  him 
modest,  and  inclined  to  employ  himself,  which,  for  the  heir  of  such 
large  dominions,  is  in  the  highest  degree  necessary."  Raumer,  Six- 
teenth and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  128.* 


*'•  [Some  apparent  inconsistencies  in  the  character  of  Don  Carlos  aie 
perhaps  best  established  by  the  extracts  from  his  account-books  pub- 
lished in  the  Coleccion  de  Documentos  ineditos  para  la  Hist,  de  Es- 
pana,  torn,  xxvii.  In  these  we  find  him  paying  for  the  maintenance 
and  education  of  abandoned  children  and  discharging  the  obligations 
of  an  imprisoned  debtor,  while  on  another  occasion  he  gives  an  alms 
of  one  hundred  reals  to  Damian  Martin,  "  father  of  the  girls  beaten 
by  order  of  his  highness.  Perhaps  the  worst  story  told  of  him  is  that 
of  his  having  one  day  shut  himself  up  in  his  stables  and  inflicted 
serious  injuries  on  more  than  a  score  of  horses.  The  strongest  evidence 
for  this  seems  to  be  an  allusion  to  it  in  a  letter  of  Hernan  Suarez, 
afterwards  cited. — Ed.] 


IIIS  DISPOSITION.  477 

A  still  more  honorable  testimony  is  borne  by  the  rela- 
tions in  which  he  stood  to  his  preceptor,  Honorato 
Juan,  who,  at  the  prince's  solicitation,  had  been  raised 
to  the  bishopric  of  Osma.  Carlos  would  willingly  have 
kept  this  good  man  near  his  own  person.  But  he  was 
detained  in  his  diocese;  and  the  letters  from  time  to 
time  addressed  to  him  by  his  former  pupil,  whatever 
may  be  thought  of  them  as  pieces  of  composition,  do 
honor  to  the  prince's  heart.  "  My  best  friend  in  this 
life,"  he  affectionately  writes  at  the  close  of  them,  "I 
will  do  all  that,  you  desire. "^^  Unfortunately,  this 
good  friend  and  counsellor  died  in  1566.  By  his  will, 
he  requested  Carlos  to  select  for  himself  any  article 
among  his  effects  that  he  preferred.  He  even  gave 
him  authority  to  change  the  terms  of  the  instrument 
and  make  any  other  disposition  of  his  property  that  he 
thought  right !  '^  It  was  a  singular  proof  of  confidence 
in  the  testator,  unless  we  are  to  receive  it  merely  as  a 
Spanish  compliment, — somewhat  perilous,  as  the  case 
of  Grimaldo  proves,  with  a  person  who  interpreted 
compliments  as  literally  as  Carlos. 

From  all  this,  there  would  seem  to  have  been  the 
germs  of  generous  qualities  in  the  prince's  nature, 
which,  under  a  happier  culture,  might  have  been  turned 
to  some  account.      But  he  was  placed  in  that  lofty 

32  "  Mi  mayor  amigo  que  tengo  en  esta  vida,  que  har^  lo  que  vos 
me  pidieredes."  Elogios  de  Honorato  Juan,  p.  66. — The  last  words, 
it  is  true,  may  be  considered  as  little  more  than  a  Castilian  form  of 
epistolary  courtesy. 

33  "  Su  Alteza  anada,  y  quite  todo  lo  que  le  pareciere  de  mi  testa- 
mento,  y  este  mi  Codicilo,  que  aquello  que  su  Alteza  mandare  lo  doy, 
y  quiero  que  sea  tan  valido  como  si  estuviesse  expressado  en  este  mi 
Codicilo,  o  en  el  testamento."     Ibid.,  p.  73. 


478  DON  CARLOS. 

Station  which  exposed  him  to  the  influence  of  parasites, 
who  flattered  his  pride,  and  corrupted  his  heart,  by- 
ministering  to  his  pleasures.  From  the  eminence  which 
he  occupied,  even  the  smallest  errors  and  eccentricities 
became  visible  to  the  world  and  the  objects  of  un- 
sparing criticism.  Somewhat  resembling  his  father  in 
person,  he  was  different  from  him  both  in  his  good 
qualities  and  his  defects,  so  that  a  complete  barrier  was 
raised  between  them.  Neither  party  could  comprehend 
the  other;  and  the  father  was  thus  destitute  of  the 
means  which  he  might  else  have  had  of  exerting  an 
influence  over  the  son.  The  prince's  dissipated  way 
of  life,  his  perpetual  lapses  from  decorum,  or,  to  speak 
more  properly,  his  reckless  defiance  of  decency,  out- 
raged his  father,  so  punctilious  in  his  own  observance 
of  the  outward  decencies  of  life.  He  may  well  have 
dwelt  on  such  excesses  of  Carlos  with  pain ;  but  it  may 
be  doubted  if  the  prince's  more  honorable  desire  to 
mingle  in  public  affairs  was  to  the  taste  of  Philip,  who 
was  too  tenacious  of  power  willingly  to  delegate  it, 
beyond  what  was  absolutely  necessary,  to  his  own  min- 
isters. The  conduct  of  his  son,  unhappily,  furnished 
him  with  a  plausible  ground  for  distrusting  his  capacity 
for  business. 

^  Thus  distrusted,  if  not  held  in  positive  aversion,  by 
his'iktlier ;  excluded  from  any  share  in  the  business  of 
the  state,  as  well  as  from  a  military  life,  which  would 
seem  to  have  been  well  suited  to  his  disposition ;  sur- 
rounded by  Philip's  ministers,  whom  Carlos,  with  too 
much  reason,  regarded  as  spies  on  his  actions, — the 
unhappy  young  man  gave  himself  up  to  a  reckless 
course  of  life,  equally  ruinous  to  his  constitution  and 


HIS  DISPOSITION.  479 

to  his  character ;  until  the  people,  who  had  hailed  with 
delight  the  prospect  of  a  native-born  prince,  now  felt 
a  reasonable  apprehension  as  to  his  capacity  for  govern-y 
ment.^  ^ 

But,  while  thus  an  object  of  distrust  at  home,  abroad 
more  than  one  sovereign  coveted  an  alliance  with  the 
heir  of  the  Spanish  monarchy.  Catherine  de  Medicis 
would  gladly  have  secured  his  hand  for  a  younger  sister 
of  Isabella,  in  which  project  she  was  entirely  favored 
by  the  queen.  This  was  in  1565  ;  but  Philip,  in  his 
usual  procrastinating  spirit,  only  replied,  "  They  must 
reflect  upon  it."3s  He  looked  with  a  more  favorable 
eye  on  the  proposals  warmly  pressed  by  the  emperor 
and  empress  of  Germany,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  still 
cherished  a  kindly  remembrance  of  Carlos,  and  wished 
his  union  with  their  daughter  Anne.  That  princess, 
who  was  a  year  younger  than  her  cousin,  claimed  Spain 
as  her  native  land,  having  been  born  there  during  the 
regency  of  Maximilian.  But  although  the  parties  were 
of  suitable  age,  and  Philip  acquiesced  in  the  proposals 
for  their  marriage,  his  want  of  confidence  in  his  son,  if 
we  may  credit  the  historians,  still  moved  him  to  defer  the 
celebration  of  it.^^  Anne  did  indeed  live  to  mount  the 
throne  of  Castile,  but  as  the  wife,  not  of  Carlos,  but  of 
Philip,  after  the  death  of  Isabella.  Thus,  by  a  singular^ 
fatality,  the  two  princesses  who  had  been  destined  for 
the  son  were  each  of  them  married  to  the  father.* 

34  "  Cosi  come  sono  allegri  i  Spagnuoli  d'  haver  per  loro  'S>\g^^  un  Re 
naturale  :  cosi  stanno  molto  in  dubio  qual  debbe  esser  il  suo  governo." 
Relatione  di  Tiepolo,  MS. 

35  Raumer,  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  132. 
3*  Herrera,  Historia  general,  torn.  i.  p.  680. 


*  [Of  the  different  matrimonial  designs  of  which  Don  Carlos,  as 


48o  DON  CARLOS. 

The  revolutionary  movement  in  the  Netherlands  was 
at  this  time  the  great  subject  that  engaged  the  attention 

heir  to  the  greatest  monarchy  of  Europe,  was  the  object,  the  most 
amusing  was  the  suit  vigorously  prosecuted  on  her  own  behalf  by  his 
aunt,  the  princess  Juana,  who,  having  missed  the  throne  of  Portugal, 
aspired  to  that  of  Spain  as  the  fittest  compensation,  and  rejected  with 
contempt  offers  from  several  of  the  Italian  princes.  The  nearness  of 
blood  could  be  no  obstacle  in  a  family  which,  aided  by  papal  dispen- 
sations, was  accustomed  to  carry  intermarriage  to  nearly  the  same 
extent  as  the  Peruvian  Incas ;  while  her  ten  years'  seniority  to  her 
nephew  seemed,  probably,  to  the  princess  herself  an  additional  recom- 
mendation, as  insuring  a  continuance  of  the  care  and  solicitude  she 
had  bestowed  upon  his  infancy,  and  which  she  may  have  thought  him 
likely  always  to  need.  The  Spanish  nation  took  the  same  view,  and 
the  cortes  of  Castile  petitioned  Philip  to  effect  the  marriage.  Carlos, 
however,  held  different  sentiments,  which  he  expressed  with  his  usual 
bluntness,  nojt  only  declaring  in  private  his  determination  not  to  wed 
the  princessi^but  presenting  himself  before  the  cortes  and  rating  it  for 
having  dared  to  meddle  in  the  matter,  as  well  as  for  having  requested 
his  father  not  to  take  him  to  the  Netherlands.  yA  proposal  to  which 
he  showed  himself  better  inclined  was  started  originally  by  the  Guises, 
who,  on  the  death  of  Francis  11.  of  France,  conceived  the  idea  of 
forming  what  was  thought  a  still  more  splendid  connection  for  their 
ill-fated  niece.  Catherine  de  Medicis  set  herself  diligently  to  coun- 
termining this  project, — in  every  way  inimical  to  her  interests, — and 
succeeded  by  threats  in  extorting  from  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  a 
promise  to  desist  from  pursuing  it.  It  was,  however,  revived  after 
Mary's  arrival  in  Scotland,  her  subjects  being  favorable  to  an  alliance 
which  offered  the  strongest  counterpoise  to  the  power  of  England, — a 
patriotic  consideration  that  led  the  Reformers  to  stifle  the  motives 
which  might  have  been  expected  to  rouse  their  strenuous  opposition. 
A  like  consideration  might  have  led  Philip  to  regard  the  match  with 
favor  if  he  had  not — in  contrast  to  his  own  father  and  to  fathers  in 
general — wished  to  postpone  the  marriage  of  his  son  until  assured  of 
the  latter's  fitness  to  render  himself  an  agreeable  husband.  Such,  at 
least,  was  the  excuse  he  alleged  for  delaying  an  acceptance  of  the 
©fiiperor's  offer,  which  Carlos,  on  the  other  hand,  was  eager  to  accept. 
\FIe  had  obtained  a  portrait  of  the  princess  Anne,  and  fancied  himself 
deeply  in  love  with  her.     Being  asked  on  one  occasion  by  the  queen 


HIS    CONNECTION  WITH   THE   FLEMINGS.      481 

of  the  Spaniards;  and  Carlos  is  reported  to  have  taken 
a  lively  interest  in  it.  According  to  Antonio  Perez, 
the  Flemings  then  at  the  court  made  positive  overtures 
to  the  prince  to  head  the  revolt. ^^  Strada  speaks  of 
Bergen  and  Montigny,  then  at  Madrid,  as  the  channel 
of  communication  through  which  Carlos  engaged  to 
settle  the  affairs  of  that  distracted  country.^^  That  a 
person  of  his  ardent  temper  should  have  felt  sympathy 
with  a  people  thus  bravely  struggling  for  its  liberties, 
is  not  improbable;  nor  would  one  with  whom  "to  think 
and  to  speak  was  the  same  thing"  39  be  at  all  unlikely  to 
express  himself  on  the  subject  with  much  more  freedom 
than  discretion.      And  it  may  have  been  in  allusion  to 

37  Raumer  (Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  153),  who 
cites  a  manuscript  letter  of  Antonio  Perez  to  the  councillor  Du  Vaire, 
extant  in  the  Royal  Library  of  Paris.  A  passage  in  a  letter  to  Carlos 
from  his  almoner,  Doctor  Hernan  Suarez  de  Toledo,  has  been  inter- 
preted as  alluding  to  his  intercourse  with  the  deputies  from  Flanders : 
"  Tambien  he  llorado,  no  haber  parecido  bien  que  V.  A.  hablase  a  los 
procuradores,  como  dicen  que  lo  hizo,  no  se  lo  que  fue,  pero  si  que 
cumple  mucho  hacer  los  hombres  sus  negocios  propios,  con  consejo 
ageno,  por  que  los  muy  diestros  nunca  fian  del  suyo."  The  letter, 
which  is  without  date,  is  to  be  found  in  the  archiepiscopal  library  of 
Toledo. 

38  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  376. 

39  "  fe  principe,"  writes  the  nuncio,  "  che  quello,  che  ha  in  cuore,  ha 
in  bocca."  Lettera  del  Nunzio  al  Cardinale  Alessandrini,  Giugno, 
1566,  MS.  

where  his  thoughts  were,  he  answered,  "  Three  hundred  leagues  from 
here."  "Where,  then?"  she  asked,  smiling.  "With  my  cousin," 
he  replied.  This  ungallant  answer,  reported  in  a  letter  of  the  French 
minister,  seems  a  sufficient  refutation  of  his  pretended  love  for  his 
step-mother,  though  her  kindness  and  compassion  for  him,  and  the 
reverence  with  which  it  was  repaid,  are  well  established./  See  Gachard, 
Don  Carlos  et  Philippe  II.,  passim. — ED.] 
Philip. — Vol.  II. — v  41 


482  I^ON  CARLOS. 

this  that  his  almoner,  Suarez,  in  a  letter  without  date, 
implores  the  prince  "  to  abandon  his  dangerous  designs, 
the  illusion  of  the  Evil  One,  which  cannot  fail  to  bring 
mischief  to  himself  and  disquiet  to  the  monarchy."'" 
The  letter  concludes  with  a  homily,  in  which  the  good 
doctor  impresses  on  the  prince  the  necessity  of  filial 
obedience,  by  numerous  examples,  from  sacred  and 
profane  story,  of  the  sad  end  of  those  who  had  im- 
piously rejected  the  counsels  of  their  parents/' 

But,  although  it  is  true  that  this  hypothesis  would 
explain  much  that  is  enigmatical  in  the  subsequent  his- 
tory of  Carlos,  I  must  confess  I  have  met  with  no  con- 
firmation of  it  in  the  correspondence  of  those  who  had 
the  direction  of  affairs  in  the  Low  Countries,  nor  in 
the  charges  alleged  against  Montigny  himself, — where 
an  attempt  to  suborn  the  heir-apparent,  one  might  sup- 
pose, would  have  been  paraded  as  the  most  heinous 
offence.  Still,  that  Carlos_^egajdedhimsel£_a5_Jii^ 
[proper_persQn_to_be  intrustedjAath_Ui£_jm]ssion_tg_^^ 
\Netherlands  is  evident~Ifom  his  treatment  of  Alva 
■/wherTThantobleman  was  appointed  to  the  command 
of  the  army. 

On  that  occasion,  as  the  duke  came  to  pay  his  respects 
to  him  previous  to  his  departure,  the  prince  fiercely 

40  "  Que  eran  de  grandisimo  engano,  y  error  peligrosisimo,  inven- 
tado  y  buscado  todo  por  el  demonio,  para  dar  travajo  a  V.  A.  y  pensar 
darle  d  todos,  y  para  desasogear,  y  aun  inquietar  la  grandeza  de  la 
monarquia."     Carta  de  Hernan  Suarez  al  Principe,  MS. 

4'  The  intimate  relations  of  Doctor  Suarez  with  Carlos  exposed  him 
to  suspicions  in  regard  to  his  loyalty  or  his  orthodoxy, — we  are  not 
told  which, — that  might  have  cost  him  his  life,  had  not  this  letter, 
found  among  the  prince's  papers  after  his  death,  proved  a  sufficient 
voucher  for  the  doctor's  innocence.  Soto,  Anotaciones  k  la  Historia 
de  Talabera,  MS. 


HIS  CONNECTION  WITH  THE  FLEMINGS.      483 

said,  "You  are  not  to  go  to  Flanders;  I  will  go  there 
myself."  Alva  endeavored  to  pacify  him,  saying  that 
it  was  too  dangerous  a  mission  for  the  heir  to  the  throne ; 
that  he  was  going  to  quiet  the  troubles  of  the  country 
and  prepare  it  for  the  coming  of  the  king,  when  the 
prince  could  accompany  his  father,  if  his  presence  could 
be  spared  in  Castile.  But  this  explanation  served  only 
to  irritate  Carlos  the  more  ;  and,  drawing  his  dagger, 
he  turned  suddenly  on  the  duke,  exclaiming,  "You 
shall  not  go;  if  you  do,  I  will  kill  you."  A  struggle 
ensued, — an  awkward  one  for  Alva,  as  to  have  injured 
the  heir-apparent  might  have  been  construed  into  trea- 
son. Fortunately,  being  much  the  stronger  of  the  two, 
he  grappled  with  Carlos,  and  held  him  tight,  while  the 
latter  exhausted  his  strength  in  ineffectual  struggles  to 
escape.  But  no  sooner  was  the  prince  released  than  he 
turned  again,  with  the  fury  of  a  madman,  on  the  duke, 
who  again  closed  with  him,  when  the  noise  of  the  fray 
brought  in  one  of  the  chamberlains  from  an  adjoining 
room ;  and  Carlos,  extricating  himself  from  the  iron 
grasp  of  his  adversary,  withdrew  to  his  own  apartment.''^ 
Such  an  outrage  on  the  person  of  his  minister  was 
regarded  by  Philip  as  an  indignity  to  himself.  It 
widened  the  breach,  already  too  wide,  between  father 
and  son ;  and  so  great  was  their  estrangement  that, 
when  living  in  the  same  palace,  they  seem  to  have  had 
no  communication  with  each  other. '•^  Much  of  Philip's 
time,  however,  at  this  period,  was  passed  at  the  Esco- 

43  Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  vii.  cap.  13. — Strada,  De  Bello  Bel- 
gico,  torn.  i.  p.  376. — Vanderhammen,  Don  Juan  de  Austria  (Madrid, 
1627),  fol.  37. 

43  Letter  of  Fourquevaulx,  January  19th,  1568,  ap.  Raumer,  Six- 
teenth and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  85. 


484  DON  CARLOS. 

rial,  where  he  was  watching  over  the  progress  of  the 
magnificent  pile  which  was  to  commemorate  the  victory 
of  St.  Quentin.  But,  while  in  his  retreat,  the  ministers 
placed  about  his  son  furnished  the  king  with  faithful 
reports  of  his  proceedings. 

Such  was  the  deplorable  state  of  things,  when  Carlos 
came  to  the  fatal  determination  to  escape  from  the 
annoyances  of  his  present  position  by  flying  to  some 
foreign  land, — to  what  country  is  not  certainly  known ; 
some  say  to  the  Netherlands,  others  to  Germany.  The 
latter,  on  the  whole,  seems  the  most  probable ;  as  in 
the  court  of  Vienna  he  would  meet  with  his  promised 
bride,  and  friends  who  would  be  sure  to  welcome  him.* 

As  he  was  destitute  of  funds  for  such  a  journey,  he 
proposed  to  raise  them  through  a  confidential  agent, 
one  of  his  own  household,  by  obtaining  loans  from 

*  [His  intention,  as  stated  in  the  letters  from  the  court,  was  to  go  to 
Italy ;  according  to  some  reports,  with  the  ulterior  purpose  of  pro- 
ceeding to  Flanders,  while  others,  with  less  probability,  represent  him 
as  designing  to  raise  an  insurrection  in  the  Italian  provinces  subject  to 
Spain.  There  was  also  a  rumor  of  his  intending  to  fly  to  Portugal, 
which,  according  to  Fourquevaulx,  was  the  opinion  of  Philip,  founded, 
perhaps,  chiefly  on  the  fact  that  Carlos  was  the  heir  presumptive  to 
the  throne  of  that  kingdom.  ^\s  one  strong  motive  of  his  projected 
flight  seems  to  have  been  his  disgust  at  Alva's  appointment  and 
Philip's  pretended  change  of  purpose  as  to  his  own  visit  to  the  Neth- 
erlands, after  having  expressly  promised  to  take  his  son  with  him,  it 
may  be  inferred  that  the  latter  country  was  the  prince's  real  destina- 
tion, as  also  that  he  hoped  to  receive  aid  from  the  emperor, — who  had 
been  appealed  to  by  the  Flemish  nobles,  and  who  was  eager  to  re- 
ceive Carlos  as  his  son-in-law,^uch  a  project  was  far  less  wild  than  it 
may  now  appear.  Striking  examples  in  the  preceding  century,  that 
especially  of  Louis  XI.  while  dauphin, — to  which  M.  Gachard  has 
pointed  as  a  somewhat  analogous  case, — were  still  fresh  in  the  recol- 
lection of  the  world. — Ed.] 


PROJECT  OF  FLIGHT.  4S5 

different  cities.  Such  a  reckless  mode  of  proceeding, 
which  seemed  at  once  to  proclaim  his  purpose,  inti- 
mated too  plainly  the  heedlessness  of  his  character  and 
his  utter  ignorance  of  affairs. 

But,  while  these  negotiations  were  in  progress,  a  cir- 
cumstance occurred  exhibiting  the  conduct  of  Carlos 
in  such  a  light  that  it  may  claim  the  shelter  of  insanity. 
The  story  is  told  by  one  of  the  prince's  household,  an 
ayuda  de  cd?nara,  or  gentleman  of  the  chamber,  who 
was  present  at  the  scene,  which  he  describes  with  much 
simplicity. 

For  some  days  his  master,  he  tells  us,  had  no  rest, 
frequently  repeating  that  "he  desired  to  kill  a  man 
with  whom  he  had  a  quarrel  !"^  The  same  thing  he 
said — without,  however,  intimating  who  the  man  was — • 
to  his  uncle,  Don  John  of  Austria,  in  whom  he  seems 
to  have  placed  unbounded  confidence.  This  was  near 
Christmas  in  1567.  It  was  customary  on  the  twenty- 
eighth  of  December,  the  day  of  the  Innocents,  for  the 
members  of  the  royal  family  to  appear  together  ajid 
take  the  sacrament  in  public.  Carlos,  in  order  to 
prepare  for  this,  on  the  preceding  evening  went  to  the 
church  of  St.  Jerome,  to  confess  and  receive  absolution. 
But  the  confessor,  when  he  heard  the  strange  avowal 
of  his  murderous  appetite,  refused  to  grant  absolution. 
Carlos  applied  to  another  ecclesiastic,  but  with  as  little 
success.  In  vain  he  endeavored  to  argue  the  case. 
They  recommended   him   to  send   for   more   learned 

44  "  Avia  muchos  dias,  que  el  Principe  mi  Senor  andaba  inquieto 

sin  poder  sosegar,  y  decia,  que  avia  de  matar  d  un  hombre  con  quien 

estaba  mal,  y  de  este  dio  parte  al  Senor  Don  Juan,  pero  sin  declararle 

quien  fuese."     De  la  Prision  y  Muerte  del  Principe  Don  Carlos,  MS. 

41* 


486  DON  CARLOS. 

divines  and  take  their  opinion.  He  did  so  forthwith ; 
and  no  less  than  fourteen  monks  from  the  convent  of 
Our  Lady  of  Atocha,  and  two  from  another  quarter, 
were  brought  together  to  settle  this  strange  point  of 
casuistry.  Greatly  shocked,  they  were  unanimous  in 
their  opinion  that,  under  the  circumstances,  absolution 
could  not  be  granted.  Carlos  next  inquired  whether 
he  might  not  be  allowed  to  receive  an  unconsecrated 
wafer,  which  would  obviate  the  scandal  that  his  omit- 
ting to  take  the  sacrament  would  infallibly  occasion  in 
the  court.  The  reverend  body  were  thrown  into  fresh 
consternation  by  this  proposal.  The  prior  of  Atoclia, 
who  was  among  the  number,  wishing  to  draw  from 
Carlos  the  name  of  his  enemy,  told  him  that  this 
intelligence  might  possibly  have  some  influence  on  the 
judgment  of  the  divines.  The  prince  replied  that  "his 
father  was  the  person,  and  that  he  wished  to  have  his 
life  ! "  ''5  The  prior  calmly  inquired  if  any  one  was  to  aid 
him  in  the  designs  against  his  father.  But  Carlos  only 
repeated  his  former  declaration;  and  two  hours  after 
midnight  the  conclave  broke  up,  in  unspeakable  dismay. 
A  messenger  was  despatched  to  the  Escorial,  where  the 
king  then  was,  to  acquaint  him  with  the  whole  affair.'^ 
Such  is  the  report  of  the  ayuda  de  cdmai-a,  who  says 
he  was  in  attendance  on  the  prince  that  night.  The 
authority  is  better  for  some  parts  of  the  story  than  for 
others.     There  is  nothing  very  improbable  in  the  sup- 

45  "  Pero  el  Prior  le  engafio,  con  persuadirle  dixese  cual  fuese  el 
hombre,  por  que  seria  possible  podcr  dispensar  conforme  k  la  satis- 
faccion,  que  S.  A.  pudiese  tomar,  y  entonces  dixo,  que  era  el  Rey  su 
Padre  con  quien  eslaba  mdl,  y  le  havia  de  matar."  De  la  Prision  y 
Mu(!rte  del  Principe  Don  Carlos,  MS. 

46  Ibid. 


PROJECT  OF  FLIGHT.  487 

position  that  Carlos — whose  thoughts,  as  we  have  seen, 
lay  very  near  the  surface — should  have  talked  in  the 
wild  way  reported  of  him,  to  his  attendants.  But  that 
he  should  have  rej^eated  to  others  what  had  been  drawn 
from  him  so  cunningly  by  the  prior,  or  that  this  appall- 
ing secret  should  have  been  whispered  within  earshot 
of  the  attendants,  is  difficult  to  believe.  It  matters 
little,  however,  since,  whichever  way  we  take  the  story, 
it  savors  so  much  of  downright  madness  in  the  prince 
as  in  a  manner  to  relieve  him  from  moral  responsibility. 

By  the  middle  of  January,  1568,  the  prince's  agent 
had  returned,  bringing  with  him  a  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  ducats.  It  was  not  more  than  a  fourth  of  the 
amount  he  had  demanded.  But  it  answered  for  the 
present,  and  the  remainder  he  proposed  to  have  sent 
after  him  in  bills  of  exchange*'  Having  completed 
his  preparations,  he  communicated  his  intentions  to  his 
uncle,  Don  John,  and  besought  him  to  accompany  him 
in  his  flight.  But  the  latter,  after  fruitlessly  expostu- 
lating with  his  kinsman  on  the  folly  of  his  proceeding, 
left  Madrid  for  the  Escorial,  where  he  doubtless  reported 
the  affair  to  the  king,  his  brother. 

On  the  seventeenth,  Carlos  sent  an  order  to  Don 
Ramon  de  Tassis,  the  director-general  of  the  posts,  to 
have  eight  horses  in  readiness  for  him  that  evening. 
Tassis,  suspecting  all  was  not  right,  returned  an  answer 
that  the  horses  were  out.  On  the  prince  repeating  his 
orders  in  a  more  peremptory  manner,  the  postmaster 

47  "  Ya  avia  llegado  de  Sevilla  Garci  Alvarez  Osorio  con  ciento  y 
cincuenta  mil  escudos  de  los  seiscientos  mil  que  le  avia  embiado  a 
buscar  y  proveer :  y  que  assi  se  apercibiesse  para  partir  en  la  noche 
siguiente  pues  la  resta  le  remitirian  en  polizas  en  saliendo  de  la  Corte." 
Vanderhammen,  Don  Juan  de  Austria,  fol.  40. 


488  DON  CARLOS. 

sent  all  the  horses  out,  and  proceeded  himself  in  all 
haste^  to  the  Escorial."^ 

^he  king  was  not  long  in  taking  his  measures.  Some 
days  previous,  "this  very  religious  prince,"  says  the 
papal  nuncio,  "according  to  his  wont,  had  caused 
prayers  to  be  put  up,  in  the  different  monasteries,  for 
the  guidance  of  Heaven  in  an  affair  of  great  moment^  ^ 
Such  prayers  might  have  served  as  a  warning  to  Carlos. 
But  it  was  too  late  for  warnings.  Philip  now  proceeded, 
without  loss  of  time,  to  Madrid,  where  those  who  be- 
held him  in  the  audience-chamber  on  the  morning  of 
the  eighteenth  saw  no  sign  of  the  coming  storm  in 
the  serenity  of  his  countenance. 5°  That  morning  he 
attended  mass  in  public,  with  the  members  of  the  royal 
family.  After  the  services,  Don  John  visited  Carlos 
in  his  apartment,  when  the  prince,  shutting  the  doors, 
demanded  of  his  uncle  the  subject  of  his  conversation 
with  the  king  at  the  Escorial.  Don  John  evaded  the 
questions  as  well  as  he  could,  till  Carlos,  heated  by  his 
suspicions,  drew  his  sword  and  attacked  his  uncle,  who, 

48  Vanderhammen,  Don  Juan  de  Austria,  fol.  40. — Cabrera,  Filipe 
Segundo,  lib.  vii.  cap.  22. 

49  "  Sono  molti  giorni  che  stando  il  Re  fuori  comand6  segretamenic 
che  si  facesse  fare  orationi  in  alcuni  monasterii,  accio  nostro  Signore 
Dio  indrizzasse  bene  et  felicemente  un  grand  negotio,  che  si  li  offeriva. 
Questo  h  costume  di  questo  Prencipe  veramente  molto  religioso, 
quando  li  occorre  qualche  cosa  da  esseguire,  che  sia  importante." 
Lettera  del  Nunzio,  24  di  Gennaio,  1568,  MS. 

so  "  On  the  next  day,  when  I  was  present  at  the  audience,  he  ap- 
peared with  as  good  a  countenance  as  usual,  although  he  was  already 
determined  in  the  same  night  to  lay  hands  on  his  son,  and  no  longer 
to  put  up  with  or  conceal  his  follies  and  more  than  youthful  extrava- 
gances." Letter  of  Fourquevaulx,  February  sth,  1568,  ap.  Raumer, 
Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  138. 


Ills  ARREST.  489 

retreating,  with  his  back  to  the  door,  called  loudly  on 
the  prince  to  desist,  and  threw  himself  into  a  posture 
of  defence.  The  noise  made  by  the  skirmish  fortu- 
nately drew  the  notice  of  the  attendants,  who,  rushing 
in,  enabled  Don  John  to  retreat,  and  Carlos  withdrew 
in  sullen  silence  to  his  chamber. s' 

The  prince,  it  seems,  had  for  some  time  felt  himself 
insecure  in  his  father's  palace.  He  slept  with  as  many 
precautions  as  a  highwayman,  with  his  sword  and 
dagger  by  his  side,  and  a  loaded  musket  within  reach, 
ready  at  any  moment  for  action. s*  For  further  se- 
curity, he  had  caused  an  ingenious  artisan  to  construct 
a  bolt  in  such  a  way  that  by  means  of  pulleys  he  could 
fasten  or  unfasten  the  door  of  his  chamber  while  in 
bed.  With  such  precautions,  it  would  be  a  perilous 
thing  to  invade  the  slumbers  of  a  desperate  man  like 
Carlos.  But  Philip  was  aware  of  the  difficulties  ;  and 
he  ordered  the  mechanic  to  derange  the  machinery  so 
that  it  should  not  work ;  and  thus  the  door  was  left 
without  the  usual  means  for  securing  it.^^  The  rest  is 
told  by  the  ayuda  de  cdmara  above  mentioned,  who 
was  on  duty  that  night,  and  supped  in  the  palace. 

It  was  about  eleven  o'clock,  on  the  evening  of  the 

s»  Letter  of  Fourquevaulx,  ubi  supra. — Relacion  del  Ayuda  de 
Camara,  MS. 

52  Relacion  del  Ayuda  de  Camara,  MS. — Lettera  di  Nobili,  Gennaio 
21, 1568,  MS. — De  Thou,  taking  his  account  from  the  architect  Louis 
de  Foix,  has  provided  Carlos  with  still  more  formidable  means  of 
defence:  "  Ce  Prince  inquiet  ne  dormoit  point,  qu'il  n'eut  sous  son 
chevet  deux  epees  nues  et  deux  pistolets  chargez.  II  avoit  encore 
dans  sa  garderobe  deux  arquebuses  avec  de  la  poudre  et  des  balles, 
toujours  pretes  k  tirer."     Hist,  universelle,  torn.  v.  p  439. 

53  Ibid,  ubi  supra. 

V* 


49  o 


DON  CARLOS. 


eighteenth,  when  he  observed  the  king  coming  down- 
stairs, wearing  armor  over  his  clothes,  and  his  head 
protected  by  a  hehnet.  He  was  accompanied  by  the 
duke  of  Feria,  captain  of  the  guard,  with  four  or  five 
other  lords,  and  twelve  privates  of  the  guard.  The 
king  ordered  the  valet  to  shut  the  door  and  allow  no 
one  to  enter.  The  nobles  and  the  guard  then  passed 
into  the  prince's  chamber;  and  the  duke  of  Feria, 
stealing  softly  to  the  head  of  the  bed,  secured  a  sword 
and  dagger  which  lay  there,  as  well  as  a  musket  loaded 
with  two  balls.  Carlos,  roused  by  the  noise,  started 
up,  and  demanded  who  was  there.  The  duke,  having 
got  possession  of  the  weapons,  replied,  "It  is  the 
council  of  state."  Carlos,  on  hearing  this,  leaped 
from  his  bed,  and,  uttering  loud  cries  and  menaces, 
endeavored  to  seize  his  arms.  At  this  moment,  Philip, 
who  had  prudently  deferred  his  entrance  till  the  weap- 
ons were  mastered,  came  forward,  and  bade  his  son  re- 
turn to  bed  and  remain  quiet.  The  prince  exclaimed, 
"What  does  your  majesty  want  of  me?"  "You  will 
soon  learn,"  said  his  father,  and  at  the  same  time  or- 
dered the  windows  and  doors  to  be  strongly  secured, 
and  the  keys  of  the  latter  to  be  delivered  to  him.  All 
the  furniture  of  the  room,  with  which  Carlos  could 
commit  any  violence,  even  the  andirons,  were  re- 
moved.s*  The  king,  then  turning  to  Feria,  told  him 
that  "he  committed  the  prince  to  his  especial  charge, 
and  that  he  must  guard  him  well."  Addressing  next 
the   other  nobles,  he   directed   them   "to   serve   the 

54  "  Cosi  S.  M'a  fece  levare  tutte  I'armi,  et  tutti  i  ferri  sino  k  gli  alari 
di  quella  camera,  et  conficcare  le  finestre."  Lettera  di  Nobili,  Gen- 
naio  21,  1568.  MS. 


Ills  ARREST. 


491 


prince  with  all  proper  resi:)ect,  but  to  execute  none  of 
his  orders  without  first  reporting  them  to  himself; 
finally,  to  guard  him  faithfully,  under  penalty  of  being 
held  as  traitors." 

At  these  words  Carlos  exclaimed,  "Your  majesty  had 
better  kill  me  than  keep  me  a  prisoner.  It  will  be  a 
great  scandal  to  the  kingdom.  If  you  do  not  kill  me, 
I  will  make  away  with  myself."  "You  will  do  no  such 
thing,"  said  the  king,  "for  that  would  be  the  act  of  a 
madman."  "Your  majesty,"  replied  Carlos,  "treats 
me  so  ill  that  you  force  me  to  this  extremity.  I  am 
not  mad,  but  you  drive  me  to  despair  ["^s  Other 
words  passed  between  the  monarch  and  his  son,  whose 
voice  was  so  broken  by  sobs  as  to  be  scarcely  audible. s* 

Having  completed  his  arrangements,  Philip,  after 
securing  a  coffer  which  contained  the  prince's  papers, 
withdrew  from  the  apartment.  That  night,  the  duke 
of  Feria,  the  count  of  Lerma,  and  Don  Rodrigo  de 
Mendoza,  eldest  son  of  Ruy  Gomez,  remained  in  the 
prince's  chamber.  Two  lords,  out  of  six  named  for 
the  purpose,  performed  the  same  duty  in  rotation  each 
succeeding  night.  From  respect  to  the  prince,  none 
of  them  were  allowed  to  wear  their  swords  in  his  pres- 
ence. His  meat  was  cut  up  before  it  was  brought  into 
his  chamber,  as  he  was  allowed  no  knife  at  his  meals. 

ss  "  Aqui  al90  el  principe  grandes  bozes  diziendo,  mateme  Vra  M<1  y 
no  me  prenda  porque  es  grande  escandalo  para  el  reyno  y  sino  yo  me 
matare,  al  qual  respondio  el  rey  que  no  lo  hiciere  qiie  era  cosa  de  loco, 
y  el  principe  respondio  no  lo  hare  como  loco  sino  como  desesperado 
pues  Vra  Mt*  me  trata  tan  mal."    Relacion  del  Ayuda  de  Camara,  MS. 

5«  "  Erasi  di  gik  tomato  nel  letto  il  Principe  usando  molte  parole 
fuor  di  proposito :  le  quali  non  furno  asverttite  come  dette  quasi  sin- 
ghiozzando."     Lettera  di  Nobili,  Gennaio  25,  1568,  MS. 


492 


DON  CARLOS. 


The  prince's  attendants  were  all  dismissed,  and  most  of 
them  afterwards  provided  for  in  the  service  of  the  king. 
A  guard  of  twelve  halberdiers  was  stationed  in  the  pas- 
sages leading  to  the  tower  in  which  the  apartment  of 
Carlos  was  situated.  Thus  all  communication  from  with- 
out was  cut  off;  and,  as  he  was  unable  to  look  from 
his  strongly  barricaded  windows,  the  unhappy  prisoner 
from  that  time  remained  as  dead  to  the  world  as  if  he 
had  been  buried  in  the  deepest  dungeon  of  Simancas. 

The  following  day,  the  king  called  the  members  of 
his  different  councils  together,  and  informed  them  of 
the  arrest  of  his  son,  declaring  that  nothing  but  his 
duty  to  God,  and  the  welfare  of  the  monarchy,  could 
have  moved  him  to  such  an  act.  The  tears,  according 
to  one  present,  filled  his  eyes  as  he  made  this  avowal." 

He  then  summoned  his  council  of  state,  and  com- 
menced a  process  against  the  prisoner.  His  affliction 
did  not  prevent  him  from  being  present  all  the  while 
and  listening  to  the  testimony,  which,  when  reduced 
to  writing,  formed  a  heap  of  paper  half  a  foot  in  thick- 
ness. Such  is  the  account  given  of  this  extraordinary 
proceeding  by  the  ayuda  de  camaraJ'^ 

57  "  Y  a  cada  uno  de  por  si  con  lagrima^f^egun  me  ha  certificado 
quien  lo  vio)  les  daba  cuenta  de  lf|S^^ion  del  Principe  su  hijo." 
Relacion  del  Ayuda  de  Camara,  MS. 

58  "  Martes  veinte  de  Enero  de  1568,  Uamo  S.  M.  d  su  cdmara  d  los 
de  el  Consejo  de  Estado,  y  estubieron  en  ella  desde  la  una  de  la  tarde 
asta  las  nueve  de  la  noche,  no  se  sabe  que  se  tratase,  el  Rey  hace 
informacion,  Secretario  de  ella  es  Oyos,  hallase  el  Rey  pressente  al 
examen  de  los  testigos,  ay  escripto  casi  un  feme  en  alto."  Ibid. — I 
have  two  copies  of  this  interesting  MS.,  one  from  Madrid,  the  other 
from  the  library  of  Sir  Thomas  Phillips.  Llorente's  translation  of  the 
entire  document,  in  his  Histoire  de  I'lnquisition  (torn.  iii.  pp.  151-158), 
cannot  claim  the  merit  of  scrupulous  accuracy. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

DEATH    OF    DON    CARLOS. 

Causes  of  his  Imprisonment. — His  Rigorous  Confinement. — His  Ex- 
cesses.— His  Death. — Llorente's  Account. — Various  Accounts.— 
Suspicious  Circumstances. — Quarrel  in  the  Palace. — Obsequies  of 
Carlos. 

1568. 

The  arrest  of  Don  Carlos  caused  a  great  sensation 
throughout  the  country,  much  increased  by  the  myste- 
rious circumstances  which  had  attended  it.  The  wildest 
rumors  were  afloat  as  to  the  cause.  Some  said  the  prince 
had  meditated  a  design  against  his  father's  life;  others, 
that  he  had  conspired  against  that  of  Ruy  Gomez. 
Some  said  that  he  was  plotting  rebellion,  and  had 
taken  part  with  the  Flemings ;  others  suspected  him  of 
heresy.  Many  took  still  a  different  view  of  the  matter, 
— censuring  the  father  rather  than  the  son.  ^'His  dag- 
ger foUo^ved  close  upon  his  smile, ^^  says  the  historian  of 
Philip:  "hence  some  called  him  wise,  others  severe."' 
Carlos,  they  said,  never  a  favorite,  might  have  been 
rash  in  his  thoughts  and  words ;  but  he  had  done  no 
act  which  should  have  led  a  father  to  deal  with  his  son  so 
harshly.    But  princes  were  too  apt  to  be  jealous  of  their 

'  "  Unos  le  llamaban  prudente,  otros  severo,  porque  su  risa  i  cuchillo 
eran  confines."  Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  viii.  cap.  22. — These 
remarkable  words  seem  to  escape  from  Cabrera,  as  if  he  were  noticing 
only  an  ordinary  trait  of  character. 

Philip. — Vol.  II.  42  (493^ 


494 


DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 


successors.  They  distrusted  the  bold  and  generous 
spirit  of  their  offspring,  whom  it  would  be  wiser  to  win 
over  by  admitting  them  to  some  reasonable  share  in 
the  government.  "But  others  there  were,"  concludes 
the  wise  chronicler  of  the  times,  "who,  more  prudent 
than  their  neighbors,  laid  their  finger  on  their  lips, 
and  were  silent."* 

For  some  days  Philip  would  allow  no  post  to  leave 
Madrid,  that  he  might  be  the  first  to  send  intelligence 
of  this  event  to  foreign  courts. ^  On  the  twenty-fourth 
he  despatched  circular  letters  to  the  great  ecclesiastics, 
the  grandees,  and  the  municipalities  of  the  chief  cities 
in  the  kingdom.  They  were  vague  in  their  import, 
stating  the  fact  of  the  arrest,  and  assigning  much  the 
same  general  grounds  with  those  he  had  stated  to  the 
councils.  On  the  same  day  he  sent  despatches  to  the 
principal  courts  of  Europe.*  These,  though  singularly 
vague  and  mysterious  in  their  language,  were  more 
pregnant  with  suggestions,  at  least,  than  the  letters  to 
his  subjects.  The  most  curious,  on  the  whole,  and  the 
one  that  gives  the  best  insight  into  his  motives,  is  the 
letter  he  addressed  to  his  aunt,  the  queen  of  Portugal. 
She  was  sister  to  the  emperor  his  father, — an  estimable 
lady,  whom  Philip  had  always  held  in  great  respect. 

"Although,"  he  writes,  "it  has  long  been  obvious 

»  "  Mirabanse  los  mas  cuerdos  sellando  la  boca  con  el  dedo  i  el 
silencio."     Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  vii.  cap.  22. 

3  "  In  questo  mezo  h.  prohibito  di  mandar  corriero  nessuno,  volendo 
essere  Sua  Maestk  il  primo  d  dar  alii  Prencipi  quest'  aviso."  Lettera 
del  Nunzio,  Gennaio  21,  1568,  MS. 


*  [These  letters  are  dated  the  20th  and  the  21st,  and  those  to  the 
grandees,  the  municipalities,  etc.,  the  22d. — Ed.] 


CAUSES   OF  HIS  IMPRISONMENT. 


495 


that  it  was  necessary  to  take  some  order  in  regaid  to 
the  prince,  yet  the  feelings  of  a  father  have  led  me  to 
resort  to  all  other  means  before  proceeding  to  extremity. 
But  affairs  have  at  length  come  to  such  a  pass  that,  to 
fulfil  the  duty  which,  as  a  Christian  prince,  I  owe  both 
to  God  and  to  my  realm,  I  have  been  compelled  to 
place  my  son  in  strict  confinement.  Thus  have  I  been 
willing  to  sacrifice  to  God  my  own  flesh  and  blood, 
preferring  his  service  and  the  welfare  of  my  people  to 
all  human  considerations/  I  will  only  add  that  this 
determination  has  not  been  brought  about  by  any 
misconduct  on  the  part  of  my  son,  or  by  any  want  of 
respect  to  me ;  nor  is  this  treatment  of  him  intended 
by  way  of  chastisement,  —  for  that,  however  just  the 
grounds  of  it,  would  have  its  time  and  its  limit. ^ 
Neither  have  I  resorted  to  it  as  an  expedient  for 
reforming  his  disorderly  life.  The  proceeding  rests 
altogether  on  another  foundation ;  and  the  remedy  I 
propose  is  not  one  either  of  time  or  experience,  but  is 
of  the  greatest  moment,  as  I  have  already  remarked, 
to  satisfy  my  obligations  to  God  and  my  people."^ 

4  "  En  fin  yo  he  querido  hacer  en  esta  parte  sacrificio  k  Dios  de 
mi  propia  carne  y  sangre  y  preferir  su  servicio  y  el  bien  y  beneficio 
publico  d  las  otras  consideraciones  humanas."  Traslado  de  la  Carta 
que  su  magestad  escrivio  d  la  Reyna  de  Portugal  sobre  la  prision  del 
Principe  su  hijo,  20  de  Enero,  1568,  MS. 

s  "Solo  me  ha  parecido  ahora  advertir  que  el  fundamento  de  esta 
mi  determinacion  no  depende  de  culpa,  ni  inovediencia,  ni  desacato, 
ni  es  enderezada  d  castigo,  que  aunque  para  este  havia  la  muy 
suficiente  materia,  pudiera  tener  su  tiempo  y  su  termino."     Ibid. 

6  "  Ni  tampoco  lo  he  tomado  por  medio,  teniendo  esperanza  que 
por  este  camino  se  reformardn  sus  excesos  y  desordenes.  Tiene  este 
negocio  otro  principio  y  razon,  cuyo  remedio  no  consiste  en  tiempo, 
ni  medios ;  y  que  es  de  mayor  importancia  y  consideracion  para  satis- 


496  DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 

In  the  same  obscure  strain  Philip  addressed  Zuftiga, 
his  ambassador  at  the  papal  court, — saying  that,  "al- 
though the  disobedience  which  Carlos  had  shown 
through  life  was  sufficient  to  justify  any  demonstration 
of  severity,  yet  it  was  not  this,  but  the  stern  pressure 
of  necessity,  that  could  alone  have  driven  him  to  deal 
in  this  way  with  his  first-born,  his  only  son."' 

facer  yo  d  la  dicha  obligacion  que  tengo  a  Dios  nuestro  sefior  y  d  los 
dichos  mis  Reynos."  Traslado  de  la  Carta  desumagestaddla  Reyna 
de  Portugal,  MS. 

7  "  Pues  aunque  es  verdad  que  en  el  discurso  de  su  vida  y  trato 
haya  habido  ocasion  de  alguna  desobediencia  6  desacato  que  pudieran 
justificar  qualquiera  demostracion,  esto  no  me  obligaria  d.  llegar  d 
tan  estrecho  punto.  La  necesidad  y  conveniencia  lian  producido  las 
causas  que  me  ban  movido  muy  urgentes  y  precisas  con  mi  hijo  pri- 
mogenito  y  solo."  Carta  del  Rey  d  su  Embajador  en  Roma,  22  de 
Enero,  1568,  MS.® 

*  [Of  the  other  letters  written  by  Philip  at  this  time,  one  to  the 
duke  of  Alva,  dated  the  23d,  begins  with  the  remark,  "You  are  so 
well  acquainted  with  the  character  and  disposition  of  the  prince 
my  son,  and  with  his  mode  of  acting,  that  it  will  not  be  necessary  to 
enlarge  much  upon  the  matter  to  you  in  order  to  justify  what  has 
been  done,  or  that  you  may  understand  the  end  which  is  proposed." 
He  then  speaks  of  things  having  gone  so  far  since  Alva's  departure, 
and  of  particular  and  important  acts  carried  to  such  an  extent 
("  intervenido  actos  tan  particulares  y  de  tanta  consideracion,  y 
llegddose  d  tales  terminos"),  as  to  make  necessary  the  course  pursued. 
After  the  usual  account  of  the  motives,  as  not  proceeding  from  any 
personal  outrage  to  himself,  he  charges  Alva  not  to  communicate  to 
any  one  the  ground  of  the  business,  or  the  end  to  which  it  is  directed. 
In  a  later  letter,  dated  April  6th,  Philip  declines  to  give  a  more  explicit 
declaration,  as  the  duke  had  recommended,  of  the  causes  which  had 
determined  his  action.  For  Alva's  own  satisfaction,  he  says,  this  can- 
not be  necessary,  since  his  knowledge  of  the  prince's  nature,  condition, 
and  conduct  would  enable  him,  with  the  intimations  already  given,  to 
infer  the  ground  and  the  object,  and  to  understand  that  as  the  one 
could  not  be  removed  by  any  temporary  expedient,  so  the  other  was 


CAUSES   OF  HIS  IMPRISON'MENT.  497 

This  ambiguous  language  —  implying  that  the  im- 
prisonment of  Carlos  was  not  occasioned  by  his  own 
misconduct,  and  yet  that  the  interests  of  religion  and 
the  safety  of  the  state  both  demanded  his  perpetual 
imprisonment  —  may  be  thought  to  intimate  that  the 
cause  referred  to  could  be  no  other  than  insanity. 
This  was  plainly  stated  by  the  prince  of  Eboli,  in  a 
communication  which,  by  the  king's  order,  he  made  to 
the  French  minister,  Fourquevaulx.  The  king,  Gomez 
said,  had  for  three  years  past  perceived  that  the  prince's 
head  was  the  weakest  part  of  him,  and  that  he  was  at 
no  time  in  complete  possession  of  his  understanding. 
He  had  been  silent  on  the  matter,  trusting  that  time 
would  bring  some  amendment.  But  it  had  only  made 
things  worse ;  and  he  saw  with  sorrow  that  to  commit 
the  sceptre  to  his  son's  hands  would  be  to  bring 
inevitable  misery  on  his  subjects  and  ruin  on  the  state. 
With  unspeakable  anguish,  he  had  therefore  resolved, 
after  long  deliberation,  to  place  his  son  under  con- 
straint.^ 

8  Letter  of  Fourquevaulx,  ap.  Raumer,  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth 
Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  136. 

intended  to  be  a  true  and  complete  remedy,  and  to  obviate  the  mis- 
chiefs that  would  otherwise  ensue  both  during  the  king's  lifetime  and 
after  his  decease.  As  to  the  opinion  of  the  world,  it  was  not  deemed 
advisable  to  publish  any  further  statement  at  present  with  the  view  of 
rectifying  that,  but,  as  it  was  probable  that  the  heretics  and  rebels 
would  seek  to  strengthen  their  cause  by  alleging  that  Carlos  was  sus- 
pected of  a  defection  from  the  faith,  or  of  treasonable  designs,  Alva 
was,  in  this  case,  to  endeavor  to  stifle  such  rumors,  both  as  injurious 
to  the  prince's  honor  and  as  utterly  at  variance  with  the  truth,  and 
devoid  of  all  foundation.  Gachard,  Don  Carlos  et  Philippe  II.,  torn, 
ii.,  Appendice  D. — Ed.] 

42* 


498 


DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 


This  at  least  is  intelligible,  and  very  different  from 
Philip's  own  despatches, — where  it  strikes  us  as  strange, 
if  insanity  were  the  true  ground  of  the  arrest,  that  it 
should  be  covered  up  under  such  vague  and  equivocal 
language,  with  the  declaration,  moreover,  usually  made 
in  his  letters,  that  "at  some  future  time  he  would 
explain  the  matter  more  fully  to  the  parties."  One 
might  have  thought  that  the  simple  plea  of  insanity 
would  have  been  directly  given,  as  furnishing  the  best 
apology  for  the  son,  and  at  the  same  time  vindicating 
the  father  for  imposing  a  wholesome  restraint  upon  his 
person.*  But,  in  point  of  fact,  .the  excessive  rigor  of 
the  confinement,  as  we  shall  have  occasion  to  see, 
savored  much  more  of  the  punishment  dealt  out  to 
some  high  offender  than  of  the  treatment  of  an  un- 
fortunate lunatic.  Neither  is  it  probable  that  a  crim- 
inal process  would  have  been  instituted  against  one 
who  by  his  very  infirmity  was  absolved  from  all  moral 
responsibility. 

There  are  two  documents,  either  of  which,  should 
it  ever  be  brought  to  light,  would  probably  unfold  the 
true  reasons  of  the  arrest  of  Carlos.  The  Spanish 
ambassador,  Zuniga,  informed  Philip  that  the  pope, 
dissatisfied  with  the  account  which  he  had  given  of  the 
transaction,  desired  a  further  explanation  of  it  from 
his  majesty.'     This,  from  such  a  source,  was  nearly 

9  "  Querria  el  Papa  saber  por  carta  de  V.  M.  la  verdad."  Carta  de 
Zuniga  al  Rey,  28  de  Abril,  1568,  MS. 


*  [It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  Philip  wished  this  plea  to  be 
inferred  from  the  language  of  his  letters,  while  there  were  obvious 
reasons  why  he  should  not  publicly  state  it  in  direct  terms.  His 
own  expressions,  on  occasions  mentioned  in  subsequent  notes,  were 


CAUSES   OF  HIS  IMPRISONMENT. 


499 


equivalent  to  a  command.  For  Philip  had  a  peculiar 
reverence  for  Pius  the  Fifth,  the  pope  of  the  Inqui- 
sition, who  was  a  pontiff  after  his  own  heart.  The 
king  is  said  never  to  have  passed  by  the  portrait  of  his 
holiness,  which  hung  on  the  walls  of  the  palace,  with- 
out taking  off  his  hat."  He  at  once  wrote  a  letter  to 
the  pope  containing  a  full  account  of  the  transaction. 
It  was  written  in  cipher,*  with  the  recommendation  that 
it  should  be  submitted  to  Granvelle,  then  in  Rome,  if 
his  holiness  could  not  interpret  it."  This  letter  is 
doubtless  in  the  Vatican. f 

»°  Lorea,  Vida  de  Pio  Quinto  (Valladolid,  1713),  p.  131. 

"  In  the  Archives  of  Simancas  is  a  department  known  as  the  Pairo- 
nato,  or  family  papers,  consisting  of  very  curious  documents,  of  so 
private  a  nature  as  to  render  them  particularly  diflficult  of  access.  In 
this  department  is  deposited  the  correspondence  of  Zufiiga,  which, 
with  other  documents  in  the  same  collection,  has  furnished  me  with 
some  pertinent  extracts. 

very  similar  to  those  of  Ruy  Gomez  in  the  conversation  referred  to  in 
the  text.— Ed.] 

*  [This  is  a  mistake :  the  pope  had  little  acquaintance  with  Span- 
ish, and  Zuniga,  in  handing  him  the  letter,  requested  him,  if  he  wished 
to  have  it  translated  into  Italian,  to  employ  Granvelle  for  this  purpose, 
which  was  done. — Ed.] 

f  [This  letter,  which,  as  M.  Gachard  remarks,  was  expected,  from  the 
terms  in  which  it  is  mentioned  by  Philip  himself,  writing  to  Zufiiga,  to 
"  raise  all  the  veils,"  has  come  to  light,  through  the  discovery  that  a 
Latin  translation  of  it  had  been  published  (or  rather  buried)  in  the 
twenty-third  volume  of  the  Annales  ecclesiastici  of  Laderchi  (Rome, 
1733,  fol.),  that  historian  having  found  the  original  among  the  papers 
of  Cardinal  Alessandrino,  secretary  of  state  to  Pius  V.  It  bears  the 
date  of  May  13th.  After  asserting  his  readiness  to  repose  unlimited 
confidence  in  his  holiness,  as  in  a  true  parent,  Philip  proceeds  to 
give  what  he  calls  a  clearer  account  of  the  proceeding,  from  which 
there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  understanding  its  cause  and  object. 
He  had  often  meditated,  he  says,  on  the  burden  which  God  had 


500 


DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 


The  Other  document  is  the  process.  The  king,  imme- 
diately after  the  arrest  of  liis  son,  appointed  a  special 
commission  to  try  him.  It  consisted  of  Cardinal 
Espinosa,  the  prince  of  Eboli,  and  a  royal  councillor, 
Bribiesca  de  Munatones,  who  was  appointed  to  prepare 
the  indictment.  The  writings  containing  the  memora- 
ble process  instituted  by  Philip's  ancestor,  John  the 
Second  of  Aragon,  against  his  amiable  and  unfortunate 
son,  who  also  bore  the  name  of  Carlos,  had  been 
obtained  from  the  archives  of  Barcelona.  They  were 
translated  from  the  Catalan  into  Castilian,  and  served 
for  the  ominous  model  for  the  present  proceedings, 
which  took  the  form  of  a  trial  for  high  treason.  In 
conducting  this  singular  prosecution,  it  does  not  appear 


imposed  upon  him  in  committing  to  him  the  rule  and  administration 
of  so  many  states  and  kingdoms,  that  he  might  maintain  them  in 
order  and  peace,  in  conformity  to  the  orthodox  faith  and  obedience 
to  the  holy  see,  and  transmit  them,  after  his  brief  course,  in  security 
and  peace  to  his  successor,  on  whom  their  further  preservation  would 
depend ;  but  in  punishment  for  his  sins  it  had  pleased  God  that  his 
son  should  have  so  many  and  so  great  defects,  partly  of  intellect,  partly 
of  natural  character,  as  to  be  destitute  of  all  fitness  for  the  post ;  and  as 
all  other  remedies  and  expedients  had  proved  vain,  it  had  been  found 
necessary  at  last,  in  view  of  the  grave  inconveniences  to  be  appre- 
hended if  the  succession  were  to  devolve  upon  him,  to  incarcerate 
him,  and  then  to  deliberate  further,  in  accordance  with  circumstances, 
how  the  king's  end  could  be  attained  without  his  incurring  blame. 
This  luminous  exposition  is  followed  by  an  earnest  entreaty  that  the 
pope  will  not  divulge  any  of  the  particulars  contained  in  it,  and  with 
the  reiterated  declaration  that  the  prince  had  not  been  guilty  of  rebel- 
lion or  heresy.  In  presenting  this  letter  Zuiiiga  was  ordered,  if  the 
pope  should  make  further  inquiries,  to  excuse  himself  from  entering 
into  details.  Pius,  however,  who  was  a  person  of  few  words  when 
not  forced  into  discussion,  contented  himself  with  some  expressions 
of  condolence.    Gachard,  Don  Carlos  ct  Philippe  II.,  torn.  ii. — Ed.] 


CAUSES   OF  HIS  IMPRISONMENT.  501 

that  any  counsel  or  evidence  appeared  on  behalf  of  the 
prisoner,  although  a  formidable  amount  of  testimony, 
it  would  seem,  was  collected  on  the  other  side.  But, 
in  truth,  we  know  little  of  the  proceedings.  There  is 
no  proof  that  any  but  the  monarch,  and  the  secret 
tribunal  that  presided  over  the  trial, — if  so  it  can  be 
called, — ever  saw  the  papers.  In  1592,  according  to 
the  historian  Cabrera,  they  were  deposited,  by  Philip's 
orders,  in  a  green  box,  strongly  secured,  in  the  Archives 
of  Simancas," — where,  as  we  have  no  later  information, 
they  may  still  remain,  to  reward  the  labors  of  some  future 
antiquary. '3 

"  "  Estan  en  el  archive  de  Simancas,  donde  en  el  ano  mil  i  quini- 
entos  i  noventa  i  dos  los  metio  don  Cristoval  de  Mora  de  su  Camara 
en  un  cofrecillo  verde  en  que  se  conservan."  Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo, 
lib.  vii.  cap.  22. 

'3  It  is  currently  reported,  as  I  am  informed,  among  the  scholars  of 
Madrid,  that  in  1828  Ferdinand  the  Seventh  caused  the  papers  con- 
taining the  original  process  of  Carlos,  with  some  other  documents, 
to  be  taken  from  Simancas ;  but  whither  they  were  removed  is  not 
known.  Nor  since  that  monarch's  death  have  any  tidings  been  heard 
of  them.* 


*  [A  rumor  was  long  current  in  Spain  that  a  certain  box  at  Siman- 
cas contained  the  so-called  "  process"  of  Don  Carlos.  This  box 
was  opened,  during  the  French  occupation,  by  order  of  General 
Kellermann,  and  was  found  to  contain  the  process  of  Don  Rodrigo 
de  Calderon,  marquis  of  Siete  Iglesias,  who  was  condemned  and 
executed  in  1621.  M.  Gachard  deduces  the  conclusion  that  all  the 
reports  relating  to  the  deposit  or  removal  of  the  papers  were  equally 
unfotmded.  He  doubts,  indeed,  whether  such  papers  ever  existed,  con- 
tending that  no  regular  process,  with  the  object  of  disinheriting  the 
heir-apparent,  could  have  been  instituted  by  a  mere  commission,  and 
that  at  the  most  the  business  intrusted  to  Ruy  Gomez  and  his  associates 
was  to  collect  facts  and  take  evidence  on  which  to  base  a  formal 
indictment,  or  acte  d' accusation.     But  the  positive  statements  of  so 


502 


DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 


In  default  of  these  documents,  we  must  resort  to 
conjecture  for  the  sokition  of  this  difficult  problem ; 
and  there  are  several  circumstances  which  may  assist 

well-informed  and  careful  a  writer  as  Cabrera  are  not  to  be  lightly  set 
aside.  The  foreign  ministers  at  the  court  all  speak,  in  their  earlier 
letters,  of  the  intention  to  institute  a  process ;  and  the  papal  nuncio, 
in  a  despatch  of  March  2d,  after  saying  that  the  affair  of  the  prince 
was  no  longer  talked  of  at  the  court,  and  that  it  was  not  known  that 
any  charges  against  him  had  yet  been  put  in  writing,  adds  that  it  was 
nevertheless  probable  that  this  was  being  done  secretly.  That  a  sen- 
tence obtained  in  this  manner  would  have  been,  as  M.  Gachard  re- 
marks, contrary  to  "  the  most  elementary  notions  of  justice  as  well  as 
to  the  fundamental  laws  of  Castile,"  affords  no  proof  that  the  method 
would  have  seemed  unsatisfactory  to  Philip,  who  was  a  stickler  for 
forms,  but  not  for  legality,  much  less  justice,  in  the  execution  of  his  own 
purposes.  So  far  as  probabilities  are  concerned,  the  only  question  is 
whether,  in  the  present  instance,  such  a  method  would  have  subserved 
his  end,  which  was,  as  the  whole  array  of  evidence  shows  and  as  M. 
Gachard  irresistibly  argues,  to  deprive  Carlos  of  the  succession.  But 
to  attain  this  end  by  strictly  legal  means  would  have  been  all  but 
impossible.  The  assent  of  the  cortes  of  Castile,  which  had  sworn 
allegiance  to  Carlos,  would  have  been  requisite,  and  perhaps  the 
sanction  of  a  papal  dispensation  relieving  them  from  their  oaths. 
The  latter  might  have  been  easily  obtained  by  a  monarch  whose 
power  was  the  great  bulwark  of  the  Church ;  but  the  cortes,  much 
as  it  was  in  the  habit  of  yielding  to  encroachments  on  popular 
rights,  had  a  stronger  regard  for  the  right  of  succession  to  the  throne, 
which  involved  the  sacredness  of  all  other  rights  and  the  unity  of 
the  nation.  The  fact  that  Carlos  was  an  only  son,  however  little  it 
might  weigh  with  Philip,  would  itself  have  been  an  insuperable 
objection  with  the  great  body  of  his  subjects.  Merely  to  have 
mooted  the  matter  in  public  would  have  let  loose  a  storm  of  discus- 
sion and  opposition  which  the  king  had  from  the  first  taken  every 
precaution  to  avoid.  Yet  it  was  necessary  that  the  acts  of  so 
"prudent"  a  monarch  should  be  provided  in  case  of  need  with  the 
pretence  of  a  justification ;  and  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  this 
mockery  of  a  prosecution  was  carried  through  with  the  same  punc- 
tilious observances  as  had  characterized  the  case  of  Montigny. — 
Ed.] 


CAUSES   OF  HIS  IMPRISONMENT.  503 

lis  in  arriving  at  a  conclusion.  Among  the  foreign 
ministers  at  that  time  at  the  court  of  Madrid,  none 
took  more  pains  to  come  at  the  trutli  of  this  affair — as 
his  letters  abundantly  prove — than  the  papal  nuncio, 
Castaneo,  archbishop  of  Rossano.  He  was  a  shrewd, 
sagacious  prelate,  whose  position  and  credit  at  the 
court  gave  him  the  best  opportunities  for  information. 
By  Philip's  command,  Cardinal  Espinosa  gave  the 
nuncio  the  usual  explanation  of  the  grounds  on  which 
Carlos  had  been  arrested.  "It  is  a  strange  story,"  said 
the  nuncio,  "that  Avhich  we  everywhere  hear,  of  the 
prince's  plot  against  his  father's  life."  "It  would  be 
of  little  moment,"  replied  the  cardinal,  "if  the  danger 
to  the  king  were  all ;  as  it  would  be  easy  to  protect  his 
person.  But  the  present  case  is  worse, — if  worse  can 
be  \  and  the  king,  who  has  seen  the  bad  course  which 
his  son  has  taken  for  these  two  years  past,  has  vainly 
tried  to  remedy  it ;  till,  finding  himself  unable  to  exer- 
cise any  control  over  the  hair-brained  young  man,  he 
has  been  forced  to  this  expedient."  '* 

Now,  in  the  judgment  of  a  grand  inquisitor,  it  would 
probably  be  thought  that  heresy,  or  any  leaning  to 
heresy,  was  a  crime  of  even  a  deeper  dye  than  parri- 
cide. The  cardinal's  discourse  made  this  impression 
on  the  nuncio,  who  straightway  began  to  cast  about 
for  proofs  of  apostasy  in   Don  Carlos.     The  Tuscan 

»4  "  Rispose  che  questo  saria  el  manco,  pcrche  se  non  fosse  stato 
altro  pericolo  che  della  persona  del  R^  si  saria  guardata,  et  rimediato 
altramente,  ma  che  ci  era  peggio,  si  peggio  pud  essere,  al  che  sua 
Maestk  ha  cercato  per  ogni  via  di  rimediare  due  anni  continui,  perch^ 
vedeva  pigliarli  la  mala  via,  ma  non  ha  mai  potuto  fermare  ne  regolare 
questo  cervello,  fin  che  h.  bisognato  arrivare  a  questo."  Lettera  del 
Nunzio,  Gennaio  24,  1568,  MS. 


504 


DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 


minister  also  notices  in  his  letters  the  suspicions  that 
Carle's  was  not  a  good  Catholic. '^  A  confirmation-  of 
this  •\iew  of  the  matter  may  be  gathered  from  the 
remarks  of  Pius  the  Fifth  on  Philip's  letter  in  cipher, 
above- noticed.  "His  holiness,"  writes  the  Spanish 
ambassador,  "  greatly  lauds  the  course  taken  by  your 
majesty;  for  he  feels  that  the  preservation  of  Chris- 
tianity depends  on  your  living  many  years,  and  on  your 
having  a  successor  who  will  tread  in  your  footsteps."  '' 
But,  though  all  this  seems  to  intimate  pretty  clearly 
that  the  religious  defection  of  Carlos  was  a  predominant 
motive  for  his  imprisonment,  it  is  not  easy  to  believe 
that  a  person  of  his  wayward  and  volatile  mind  could 
have  formed  any  settled  opinions  in  matters  of  faith,  or 
that  his  position  would  have  allowed  the  Reformers  such 
access  to  his  person  as  to  have  greatly  exposed  him  to 
the  influence  of  their  doctrines.  Yet  it  is  quite  possible 
that  he  may  have  taken  an  interest  in  those  political 
movements  abroad  which  in  the  end  were  directed 
against  the  Church.  I  allude  to  the  troubles  in  the 
Low  Countries,  which  he  is  said  to  have  looked  upon 
with  no  unfriendly  eye.  It  is  true,  there  is  no  proof 
of  this,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  in  the  correspondence  of 
the  Flemish  leaders.  Nor  is  there  any  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  Carlos  entered  directl)into  a  correspondence 

»5  "  Non  lascer6  per6  di  dirle,  ch'  io  ho  ritratto  et  di  luogo  ragio- 
nevole,  clie  si  sospetta  del  Prencipe  di  poco  Cattolico :  et  quelle,  che 
lo  fk  credere,  h  che  fin'  adesso  non  li  han  fatto  dir  messa."  Lettera 
di  Nobili,  Gennaio  25,  1568,  MS. 

16  "  ]?]  Pjt^p^  alaba  muclio  la  determinacion  de  V.  M.  porque  entiende 
que  la  conscrvacion  de  la  Christiandad  depende  de  que  Dios  de  d  V.  M. 
muchos  anos  de  vida  y  que  despues  tenga  tal  sucesor  que  sepa  seguir 
sus  pisadas."     Carta  de  Zufiiga,  Junio  25,  1568,  MS. 


CAUSES   OF  HIS  IMrRISONMENT. 


505 


with  them  himself,  or  indeed  committed  himself  by  any 
overt  act  in  support  of  the  cause,''  But  this  A/as  not 
necessary  for  his  condemnation  :  it  would  ha^e  been 
quite  enough  that  he  had  felt  a  sympathy  forrthe  dis- 
tresses of  the  people.  From  the  residence  of  Egmont, 
Bergen,  and  Montigny  at  the  court,  he  had  obvious 
means  of  communication  with  those  nobles,  who  may 
naturally  have  sought  to  interest  him  in  behalf  of  theii 
countrymen.  The  sympathy  readily  kindled  in  the 
ardent  bosom  of  the  young  prince  would  be  as  readily 
expressed.  That  he  did  feel  such  a  sympathy  may 
perhaps  be  inferred  by  his  strange  conduct  to  Alva  on 
the  eve  of  his  departure  for  the  Netherlands.*  But  the 
people  of  that  country  were  regarded  at  Madrid  as  in 
actual  rebellion  against  the  crown.  The  reformed 
doctrines  which  they  avowed  gave  to  the  movement 
the  character  of  a  religious  revolution.  For  a  Spaniard 
to  countenance  it  in  any  way  was  at  once  to  prove 
himself  false  both  to  his  sovereign  and  his  faith.     In 

^^  Leti  has  been  more  fortunate  in  discovering  a  letter  from  Don 
Carlos  to  Count  Egmont,  found  among  the  papers  of  that  nobleman 
at  the  time  of  his  arrest.  (Vita  di  Filippo  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  543.)  The 
historian  is  too  discreet  to  vouch  for  the  authenticity  of  the  docu- 
niimt,  which  indeed  would  require  a'  better  voucher  than  Leti  to 
obtain  our  confidence. 


•••■  [His  conduct  to  Alva  is  sufficiently  explained  by  the  fact  that  the 
appointment  of  the  latter  had  dashed  his  own  hopes  of  going  to  the 
Netherlands  as  the  representative  of  the  crown, — a  position  to  which 
he  probably  considered  himself  entitled  when  it  became  certain  that 
Philip  was  not  going  in  person.  A  pretence  was  made  of  giving  him 
a  share  in  the  domestic  administration,  by  way  of  consoling  him  for 
the  disappointment ;  but  it  was  soon  abandoned,  on  the  plea — very 
possibly  a  well-founded  one — that  he  threw  all  the  affairs  intrusted  to 
him  into  disorder.  Gachard,  Don  Carlos  et  Philippe  II.,  tom.  ii. — Ed.] 
Philip. — Vol.  II. — w         43 


5o6  DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 

such  a  light,  we  may  be  quite  sure,  it  would  be  viewed 
both  by  Philip  and  his  minister,  the  grand  inquisitor. 
Nor  would  it  be  thought  any  palliation  of  the  crime 
that  the  offender  was  heir  to  the  monarchy.'^ 

As  to  a  design  on  his  father's  life,  Philip,  both  in 
his  foreign  despatches  and  in  the  communications  made 
by  his  order  to  the  resident  ministers  at  Madrid,  wholly 
acquitted  Carlos  of  so  horrible  a  charge. '^  If  it  had 
any  foundation  in  truth,  one  might  suppose  that  Philip, 
instead  of  denying,  would  have  paraded  it,  as  furnishing 
an  obvious  apology  for  subjecting  him  to  so  rigorous  a 
confinement.  It  is  certain,  if  Carlos  had  really  enter- 
tained so  monstrous  a  design,  he  might  easily  have 
found  an  opportunity  to  execute  it.  That  Philip  would 
have  been  silent  in  respect  to  his  son's  sympathy  with 
the  Netherlands  may  well  be  believed.  The  great 
champion  of  Catholicism  would  naturally  shrink  from 
publishing  to  the  world  that  the  taint  of  heresy  infected 
his  own  blood.* 

/  '8  De  Castro  labors  hard  to  prove  that  Don  Carlos  was  a  Prot- 
estant. If  he  fails  to  establish  the  fact,  he  must  be  allowed  to  have 
shown  tha,t  the  prince's  conduct  was  such  as  to  suggest  great  doubts 
of  his  orthodoxy,  among  those  who  approached  the  nearest  to  him. 
See  Historia  de  los  Protestantes  Espanoles,  p.  319,  et  seq. 

'9  "  Sua  Maest^  ha  dato  ordine,  che  nelle  lettere,  che  si  scrivono  a 
tutti  li  Prencipi  et  Regni,  si  dica,  che  la  voce  ch'  h  uscita  ch  1'  Pren- 
cipe  havesse  cercato  di  offendere  la  Real  persona  sua  propria  h  falsa, 
et  questo  medesimo  fa  dire  a  bocca  da  Ruy  Gomez  all'  Imbasciatori." 
Lettera  del  Nunzio,  Gennaio  27,  1568,  MS. 


*■  [The  silence  or  denial  of  Philip  in  regard  to  either  of  the  causes 
mentioned  would  be  of  little  weight,  if  there  were  motives  for  con- 
cealment ;  and  such  motivesobviously  existed  in  regard  to  the  accusa- 
tion of  a  design  against  his  life  on  the  part  of  his  son,  as  well  as 


ins  RIGOROUS  CONFINEMENT. 


507 


But,  whatever  may  have  been  the  motives  which  de- 
termined the  conduct  of  Philip,  one  cannot  but  suspect 
that  a  deep-rooted  aversion  to  his  son  lay  at  the  bottom 
of  them.  The  dissimilarity  of  their  natures  placed  the 
two  parties,  from  the  first,  in  false  relations  to  each 
other..  The  heedless  excesses  of  youth  were  regarded 
with  a  pitiless  eye  by  the  parent,  who,  in  his  own 
indulgences,  at  least  did  not  throw  aside  the  veil  of 
decorum.  The  fiery  temper  of  Carlos,  irritated  by  a 
long-continued  system  of  distrust,  exclusion,  and  espion- 
nage,  at  length  -broke  out  into  such  senseless  extrava- 
gances as  belong  to  the  debatable  ground  of  insanity. 
And  this  ground  afforded,  as  already  intimated,  a 
plausible  footing  to  the  father  for  proceeding  to  ex- 
tremities against  the  son.* 

in  regard  to  the  imputation  of  heresy.  The  two  charges  were,  in 
fact,  closely  connected.  Both,  if  put  forward,  would,  as  he  himself 
remarks  in  letters  already  cited,  have  been  accepted  by  the  "  heretics 
and  rebels"  as  tending  to  strengthen  their  party.  But  in  his  disclosures 
to  Alva  and  to  the  pope,  which  they  were  to  bury  in  their  own  bosoms, 
Philip  may  be  believed  to  have  written  the  truth,  so  far  at  least  as 
negations  were  concerned  ;  and  in  those  letters,  as  has  been  seen,  he 
contradicts  both  allegations,  not  only  as  dishonorable  and  injurious, 
but  as  utterly  groundless. — Ed.] 

*  [M.  Gachard,  referring  to  those  letters  of  Philip  which  he  con- 
siders as  "  lifting  a  corner  of  the  veil,"  expresses  the  opinion  that  an 
attentive  consideration  of  the  hints  and  denials  they  contain  will  lead 
to  the  conviction  that  "^e  projected  flight  of  Don  Carlos  was  the  real 
and  immediate  cause  of  his  arrest/^  The  immediate  cause,  or  pretext, 
it  may  possibly  have  been ;  though  there  is  not  the  remotest  apparent 
allusion  to  it  in  any  of  Philip's  letters,  and  the  theory  would  seem  to 
be  directly  contradicted  by  the  explicit  statement,  in  more  than  one 
of  them,  that  the  important  step  had  not  been  determined  by  the 
faults  of  the  prince,  or  adopted  as  a  means  either  of  punishment  or 
of  reformation,  since  in  that  case  recourse  would  have  been  had  to  a 


5o8  DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 

Whatever  were  the  offences  of  Carlos,  those  who  had 
the   best   opportunities  for   observation  soon  became 

diiferent  mode  of  procedure.  (See,  in  particular,  letter  to  Alva  ol 
April  6th.)  But  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  measure  had  been 
decided  upon  long  before  Carlos  conceived  his  project  of  escape. 
Philip  himself  speaks  of  it  repeatedly  as  the  result  of  long  deliberation. 
The  French  minister,  Fourquevaulx,  had  written  to  Charles  IX.  on 
August  2ist,  1567,  that  Philip  was  so  much  displeased  with  the  conduct 
of  his  son  that,  if  it  were  not  for  the  talk  it  would  occasion,  it  was 
thought  he  would  shut  him  up  in  a  tower.  In  a  note  announcing  the 
arrest  to  Catherine  de  Medicis,  the  ambassador  recalls  the  fact  that  he 
had  made  the  same  statement  to  her,  and  had  also  mentioned  a  re- 
mark made  to  hirri  by  Ruy  Gomez  some  days  before  the  queen's  last 
accouchemenl^to  the  effect  that  an  important  resolution  was  depend- 
ing on  the  sex  of  the  child  to  which  she  was  about  to  give  birthp<['^The 
Venetian  minister  asserts,  in  a  letter  of  February  nth,  that  the  king  had 
been  thinking  of  the  matter  for  three  years ;  and  this  is  confirmed  by 
the  account  given  to  Fourquevaulx  by  Ruy  Gomez  by  the  king's  order 
{ante,  p.  497).  It  is  far  more  likely,  therefore,  that  the  projected 
flight  was  itself  a  result  of  the  prince's  knowledge  of  this  design,  than 
the  cause  of  its  being  carried  out.^J^ut  the  real  cause  is  apparent 
enough  from  the  king's  letters,  the  mysterious  tone  of  which  seems  to 
have  been  adopted  only  to  hide  the  fact  that  there  were  no  particular 
acts  which  he  could  allege  as  a  sufficient  justification  of  the  purpose 
he  so  clearly  intimated  never  to  release  his  son  or  allow  him  to  suc- 
ceed to  the  thronefs^It  is  true  that  in  his  first  letter  to  Alva  he  spoke 
of  "particular  and  important  acts;"  but  when  the  duke  asked  for 
details  he  was  told  that  he  might  easily  infer  the  causes  from  his 
general  knowledge  of  the  prince.  On  the  other  hand,  Philip  states 
repeatedly  and  explicitly  that  his  act  and  purpose  were  grounded  on 
defects  of  intellect  and  character  in  the  prince  which  it  had  been 
found  impossible  to  correct,  and  which  rendered  him  unfit  to  rule. 
The  only  question,  therefore,  that  remains  to  be  solved  is,  whether 
Philip's  opinion  of  his  son's  incapacity  was  a  correct  and  impartial 
one.  '^he  notion  that  Carlos  was  insane  or  imbecile  is  utterly  unten- 

\able.  Persons  who  knew  him  well  have  recorded  their  opinion  that 
his  extravagancies  and  eccentricities  were  the  results  of  youthful  folly 
and  a  bad  education,  and  that  he  was  endowed  with  high  qualities 
both  of  intellect  and  of  heart^His  confessor,  Fray  Diego  de  Chaves, 


HIS  RIGOROUS  CONFINEMENT.  509 

satisfied  tliat  it  was  intended  never  to  allow  him  to 
regain  his  liberty  or  to  ascend  the  throne  of  his  ances- 
tors.^ On  the  second  of  March,  a  code  of  regulations 
was  prepared  by  Philip  relative  to  the  treatment  of  the 
prince,  which  may  give  some  idea  of  the  rigor  of  his 
confinement.  He  was  given  in  especial  charge  to  Ruy 
Gomez,  who  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  establish- 
ment ;  and  it  was  from  him  that  every  person  employed 
about  Carlos  was  to  receive  his  commission.     Six  other 

^  "  Si  tien  per  fermo  che  privaranno  il  Prencipe  della  successione,  et 
non  lo  liberaranno  mai."     Lettera  del  Nunzio,  Febraio  14,  1568,  MS. 


in  a  conversation  with  the  imperial  minister  during  the  imprisonment 
of  Carlos,  spoke  of  the  defects  of  his  character  as  attributable  to  an 
obstinacy  which  had  never  been  corrected  by  proper  discipline,  but 
added  that  he  had  many  great  virtues,  and  might  be  expected,  if  the 
present  correction  were  followed  by  amendment,  to  become  a  good 
and  virtuous  prince.  Brantome  expresses  the  belief  that  if  he  had 
lived  to  get  rid  of  his  youthful  wildness  he  would  have  turned  out  a 
very  great  prince,  a  soldier  and  a  statesman.  The  Italian  letter- 
writers,  including  the  papal  nuncio,  state  that  both  the  grandees  and 
the  people  had  the  highest  hopes  of  him  and  looked  forward  to  his 
accession  as  destined  to  inaugurate  a  new  system  of  government, 
under  which  the  great  nobles  would  recover  their  ancient  influence 
and  the  nation  its  liberties.  Whether  these  two  results  were  com- 
patible may  be  doubted ;  but  the  existence  of  such  anticipations  and 
the  facts  on  which  they  were  grounded  furnish  probably  the  best  key  to 
Philip's  views  and  course  of  action.  The  good  and  bad  qualities  of 
Don  Carlos  were  alike  perilous  to  the  continuance  of  that  policy  of 
repression  on  which  Philip  considered  the  security  of  the  throne  and 
of  the  monarchy  as  depending.  To  his  ministers,  the  members  of  that 
consulta  which  formed  his  only  advisers,  the  danger  must  have  seemed 
still  more  personal.  On  the  whole,  the  popular  verdict  that  Carlos 
owed  his  fate  to  the  fears  and  jealousy  of  the  king  and  his  ministers  is 
the  one  that  accords  best  with  all  the  evidence  which  has  yet  been 
brought  to  light.— Ed.] 

43* 


5IO 


DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 


nobles  were  appointed  both  to  guard  the  prince  and 
render  him  service.  Two  of  the  number  were  to 
remain  in  his  apartment  every  night, — the  one  watch- 
ing while  the  other  slept ;  reminding  us  of  an  ingenious 
punishment  among  the  Chinese,  where  a  criminal  is 
obliged  to  be  everywhere  followed  by  an  attendant, 
whose  business  it  is  to  keep  an  unceasing  watch  upon 
the  offender,  that,  wherever  he  turns,  he  may  still  find 
the  same  eye  riveted  upon  him  !* 

\^During  the  day  it  was  the  duty  of  these  nobles  to 
remain  with  Carlos  and  lighten  by  their  conversation 
the  gloom  of  his  captivity.  But  they  were  not  to  talk 
on  matters  relating  to  the  government,  above  all  to  the 
prince's  imprisonment,  on  which  topic,  if  he  addressed 
them,  they  were  to  remain  obdurately  silent.  They 
were  to  bring  no  messages  to  him,  and  bear  none  from 

*  [Prescott  has  omitted  to  mention  that  on  the  25th  of  January  the 
prince  had  been  removed  from  his  own  chamber,  which  was  in  an 
entresol,  to  a  small  room  on  the  same  floor,  situated  in  a  tower,  which 
had  but  one  entrance  and  one  window,  the  latter  so  barred  as  to 
admit  light  only  through  the  upper  part.  An  opening  was  made  in 
the  partition-wall,  to  admit  of  his  hearing  mass  when  celebrated  in 
an  adjoining  apartment,  but  a  wooden  barrier  prevented  his  exit  by 
this  passage.  It  was  then  that  the  regulations  were  adopted  which 
are  mentioned  in  the  text ;  though  they  were  not  reduced  to  writing 
until  the  date  there  assigned  to  them.  When  these  dispositions  and 
the  change  of  his  attendants  were  announced  to  him  by  Ruy  Gomez, 
Carlos  asked  if  Don  Rodrigo  de  Mendoza,  who  had  been  in  his 
service  only  a  short  time,  but  to  whom  he  was  strongly  attached,  and 
whose  character  is  said  to  have  justified  his  preference,  was  also  to 
leave  him.  Being  answered  in  the  affirmative,  he  took  the  young 
nobleman  in  his  arms,  and,  embracing  him  closely,  with  tears  in  his 
eyes,  assured  him  of  his  affection  and  of  his  desire  that  he  might  one 
day  be  in  a  condition  to  give  proofs  of  it.  Gachard,  Don  Carlos  at 
Philippe  II.,  torn,  ii.— Ed.] 


HIS  RIGOROUS   CONFINEMENT. 


5" 


him  to  the  world  without ;  and  they  were  to  maintain 
inviolable  secrecy  in  regard  to  all  that  passed  within 
the  walls  of  the  palace,  unless  when  otherwise  permitted 
by  the  king.  Carlos  was  provided  with  a  breviary  and 
some  other  books  of  devotion ;  and  no  works  except 
those  of  a  devotional  character  were  to  be  allowed 
him."  This  last  regulation  seems  to  intimate  the  exist- 
ence of  certain  heretical  tendencies  in  Carlos,  which  it 
was  necessary  to  counteract  by  books  of  an  opposite 
character, — unless  it  might  be  considered  as  an  omi- 
nous preparation  for  his  approaching  end.  /^Besides  the 
six  nobles,  no  one  was  allowed  to  enter  the  apartment 
but  the  prince's  physician,  his  barbero,  or  gentleman 
of  the  chamber,  and  his  valet.  The  last  was  taken 
from  the  monteros,  or  body-guard  of  the  king."  There 
were  seven  others  of  this  faithful  corps  who  were  at- 
tached to  the  establishment,  and  whose  duty  it  was  to 
bring  the  dishes  for  his  table  to  an  outer  hall,  whence 
they  were  taken  by  the  vwntero  in  waiting  to  the 
prince's  chamber.  A  guard  of  twelve  halberdiers  was 
also  stationed  in  the  passages  leading  to  the  apartment, 
to  intercept  all  communication  from  without.  Every 
person  employed  in  the  service,  from  the  highest  noble 
to  the  meanest  official,  made  solemn  oath,  before  the 
prince  of  Eboli,  to  conform  to  the  regulations.  On 
this  nobleman  rested  the  whole  responsibility  of  en- 

21  "  Para  rezarse  le  diesen  las  Oras,  Breviario  i  Rosario  que  pidiese, 
i  libros  solamente  de  buena  dotrina  i  devocion,  si  quisiese  leer  y  oir." 
Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  vii.  cap.  22. 

"  The  motitero  was  one  of  the  body-guard  of  the  king  for  the  night. 
The  right  of  filling  this  corps  was  an  ancient  privilege  accorded  to 
the  inhabitants  of  a  certain  district  named  Espinosa  de  los  Monteros. 
Llorente   Histoire  de  1' Inquisition,  torn.  iii.  p.  163. 


512  DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 

forcing  obedience  to  the  rules,  and  of  providing  for 
the  security  of  Carlos.  The  better  to  effect  this,  he 
was  commanded  to  remove  to  the  palace,  where  apart- 
ments were  assigned  to  him  and  the  princess  his  wife, 
adjoining  those  of  his  prisoner.  The  arrangement  may 
have  been  commended  by  other  considerations  to 
Philip,  whose  intimacy  with  the  princess  I  shall  have 
occasion  to  notice  hereafter.^ 

The  regulations,  severe  as  they  were,  were  executed 
to  the  letter.  Philip's  aunt,  the  queen  of  Portugal, 
wrote  in  earnest  terms  to  the  king,  kindly  offering 
herself  to  remain  with  her  grandson  in  his  confinement 
and  take  charge  of  him  like  a  mother  in  his  affliction.^ 
"  But  they  were  very  willing,"  writes  the  French  min- 
ister, "to  spare  her  the  trouble. "^^  The  emperor  and 
empress  wrote  to  express  the  hope  that  the  confinement 
of  Carlos  would  work  an  amendment  in  his  conduct, 
and  that  he  would  soon  be  liberated,  ^everal  letters 
passed  between  the  courts,  until  Philip  closed  the  cor- 
respondence by  declaring  that  his  son's  marriage  with 

*3  The  regulations  are  given  in  extenso  by  Cabrera  (Filipe  Segundo, 
lib.  vii.  cap.  22) ;  and  the  rigor  with  which  they  were  enforced  is 
attested  by  the  concurrent  reports  of  the  foreign  ministers  at  the 
court.  In  one  respect,  however,  they  seem  to  have  been  relaxed,  if, 
as  Nobili  states,  the  prince  was  allowed  to  recreate  himself  with  the 
perusal  of  Spanish  law-books,  which  he  may  have  consulted  with 
reference  to  his  own  case :  "  H!i  domandato,  che  li  siano  letti  li  statuti, 
et  le  leggi  di  Spagna :  ne'  quali  spende  molto  studio.  Scrive  assai  di 
sua  mano,  et  subito  scritto  lo  straccia."  Lettera  di  Nobili,  Giugno  8, 
1568,  MS. 

24  "  Per  questa  causa  dunque  il  Kh  et  Regina  vechia  di  quel  regno 
hanno  mandato  qui  \m  ambasciatore  a  far  offitio  col  R^  cattolico  per 
il  Prcncipe,  dolcrsi  del  caso,  offerirsi  di  venire  la  Regina  propria  a 
governarlo  como  madre."     Lettera  del  Nunzio,  Marzo  2,  1568,  MS. 

*5  Raumer,  Si.\teenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  ii.  p.  141. 


HIS  RIGOROUS  CONFINEMENT. 


513 


the  princess  Anne  could  never  take  place,  and  that  he 
would  never  be  liberated.  =*\ 

Philip's  queen,  Isabella,  and  his  sister  Joanna,  who 
seem  to  have  been  deeply  afflicted  by  the  course  taken 
with  the  prince,  made  ineffectual  attempts  to  be  allowed 
to  visit  him  in  his  confinement ;  and  when  Don  John 
of  Austria  came  to  the  palace  dressed  in  a  mourning 
suit,  to  testify  his  grief  on  the  occasion,  Philip  coldly 
rebuked  his  brother,  and  ordered  him  to  change  his 
mourning  for  his  ordinary  dress.^ 

Several  of  the  great  towns  were  prepared  to  send 
their  delegates  to  condole  with  the  monarch  under  his 
affliction.  But  Philip  gave  them  to  understand  that  he 
had  only  acted  for  the  good  of  the  nation,  and  that 
their  condolence  on  the  occasion  would  be  superfluous.'* 
When  the  deputies  of  Aragon,  Catalonia,  and  Valencia 
were  on  their  way  to  court  with  instructions  to  inquire 
into  the  cause  of  the  prince's  imprisonment  and  to 
urge  his  speedy  liberation,  they  received,  on  the  way, 
so  decided  an  intimation  of  the  royal  displeasure  that 
they  thought  it  prudent  to  turn  back,  without  venturing 
to  enter  the  capital. "^ 

.**  Raumer,  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  ii.  pp.  146, 148. 

=7  "  Reyna  y  Princesa  lloran  :  Don  Juan  va  cada  noche  i  Palacio, 
y  una  fue  muy  llano,  como  de  luto,  y  el  Ray  le  rinio,  y  mando  no 
andubiesse  de  aquel  modo,  sino  como  solia  de  antes."  Relacion  del 
Ayuda  de  Camara,  MS. 

^  "  Sua  Maestk  ha  fatto  intendere  a  tutte  le  cittk  del  Reyno,  che 
non  mandino  huomini  o  imbasciator  nessuno,  ne  per  dolersi,  ne  per 
cerimonia,  ne  per  altro  ;  et  pare  che  habbia  a  caro,  che  nessuno  glie 
ne  parli,  et  cosi  ogn'  huomo  tace."  Lettera  del  Nunzio,  Febraio  14, 
1568,  MS. 

=9  Letter  of  Fourquevaulx,  April  13,  1568,  ap.  Raumer,  Sixteenth 
and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  ii.  p.  143. —  A  letter  of  condolence. 
W* 


514  DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 

In  short,  it  soon  came  to  be  understood  that  the 
affair  of  Don  Carlos  was  a  subject  not  to  be  talked 
about.  By  degrees  it  seemed  to  pass  out  of  men's 
minds,  like  a  thing  of  ordinary  occurrence.  "There 
is  as  little  said  now  on  the  subject  of  the  prince," 
writes  the  French  ambassador,  Fourquevaulx,  "as  if 
he  had  been  dead  these  ten  years."  3°  His  name,  in- 
deed, still  kept  its  place  among  those  of  the  royal 
family,  in  the  prayers  said  in  the  churches.  But  the 
king  prohibited  the  clergy  from  alluding  to  Carlos  in 
their  discourses.  Nor  did  any  one  venture,  says  the 
same  authority,  to  criticise  the  conduct  of  the  king. 
"  So  complete  is  the  ascendency  which  Philip's  wisdom 
has  given  him  over  his  subjects,  that,  willing  or  unwill- 
ing, all  promptly  obey  him ;  and,  if  they  do  not  love 
him,  they  at  least  appear  to  do  so."  ^^ 

Among  the  articles  removed  from  the  prince's 
chamber  was  a  coffer,  as  the  reader  may  remember, 
containing  his  private  papers.  Among  these  were  a 
number  of  letters  intended  for  distribution   after  hi« 

from  the  municipality  of  Murcia  was  conceived  in  such  a  loyal  and 
politic  vein  as  was  altogether  unexceptionable.  "  We  cannot  reflect," 
it  says,  "  without  emotion,  on  our  good  fortune  in  having  a  sovereign 
so  just,  and  so  devoted  to  the  weal,  of  his  subjects,  as  to  sacrifice  to  this 
every  other  consideration,  even  the  tender  attachment  which  he  has 
for  his  own  offspring."  This,  which  might  seem  irony  to  some,  was 
received  by  the  king,  as  it  was  doubtless  intended,  in  perfect  good 
faith.  His  endorsement,  in  his  own  handwriting,  on  the  cover,  shows 
the  style  in  which  he  liked  to  be  approached  by  his  loving  subjects: 
"  This  letter  is  written  with  prudence  and  discretion."  A  translation 
of  the  letter,  dated  February  i6th,  1568,  is  in  Llorente,  Histoire  de 
rinquisition,  tom.  iii.  p.  161. 

30  Letter  of  Fourquevaulx,  ap.  Raumer,  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth 
Centuries.    . 

S'  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


HIS  RIGOROUS   CONFINEMENT. 


515 


departure  from  the  country.  One  was  addressed,  to  his 
father,  in  which  Carlos  avowed  that  the  cause  of  his 
flight  was  the  harsh  treatment  he  had  experienced  from 
the  king.3»  Other  letters,  addressed  to  different  nobles 
and  to  some  of  the  great  towns,  made  a  similar  state- 
ment ;  and,  after  reminding  them  of  the  oath  they  had 
taken  to  him  as  successor  to  the  crown,  he  promised  to 
grant  them  various  immunities  when  the  sceptre  should 
come  into  his  hands.  ^  With  these  papers  was  also 
found  one  of  most  singular  import.  It  contained  a 
list  of  all  those  persons  whom  he  deemed  friendly  or 
inimical  to  himself.  At  the  head  of  the  former  class 
stood  the  name  of  his  step-mother,  Isabella,  and  of  his 
uncle,  Don  John  of  Austria, — both  of  them  noticed  in 
terms  of  the  warmest  affection.  <LOx\.  the  catalogue  of 
his  enemies,  "to  be  pursued  to  the  death,"  were  the 
names  of  the  king  his  father,  the  prince  and  princess 
of  Eboli,  Cardinal  Espinosa,  the  duke  of  Alva,  and 
others. 3'*  '>Such  is  the  strange  account  of  the  contents 
of  the  coffer  given  to  his  court  by  the  papal  nuncio. 
These  papers,  we  are  told,  were  submitted  to  the 
judges  who  conducted  the  process,  and  formed,  doubt- 
less, an  important  part  of  the  testimony  against  the 

32  "  Quella  per  il  Rfe  conteneva  specificatamente  mold  agravii,  che 
In  molti  anni  pretendi,  che  li  siano  statti  fatti  da  Sua  MaestSi,  et 
diceva  ch'  egli  se  n'  andava  fuori  delli  suoi  Regni  per  no  poter  sop- 
portare  tanti  agravii,  che  \\  faceva."  Lettera  del  Nunzio,  Marzo  2, 
1568,  MS. 

33  Ibid. 

34  "  Vi  ^  ancora  una  lista,  dove  scriveva  di  sua  mano  gli  amici,  et  li 
nemici  suoi,  li  quali  diceva  di  havere  a  perseguitare  sempre  fino  alia 
morte,  tra  li  quali  il  prinio  era  scritto  il  R^  suo  padre,  di  poi  Rui 
Gomez  et  la  moglie,  il  Presidente,  il  Duca  d'Alba,  et  certi  altri." 
Ibid. 


5i6  DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 

prince.  It  may  have  been  from  one  of  the  parties 
concerned  that  the  nuncio  gathered  his  information. 
Yet  no  member  of  that  tribunal  would  have  ventured 
to  disclose  its  secrets  without  authority  from  Philip, 
who  may  possibly  have  consented  to  the  publication  of 
facts  that  would  serve  to  vindicate  his  course.  If  these 
facts  are  faithfully  reported,  they  must  be  allowed  to 
furnish  some  evidence  of  a  disordered  mind  in  Carlos. 

The  king,  meanwhile,  was  scarcely  less  a  prisoner 
than  his  son  ;  for  from  the  time  of  the  prince's  arrest 
he  had  never  left  the  palace,  even  to  visit  his  favorite 
residences  of  Aranjuez  and  the  Pardo,  nor  had  he 
passed  a  single  day  in  the  occupation,  in  which  he 
took  such  delight,  of  watching  the  rising  glories  of  the 
Escorial.  He  seemed  to  be  constantly  haunted  by  the 
apprehension  of  some  outbreak  among  the  people,  or 
at  least  among  the  partisans  of  Carlos,  to  effect  his 
escape ;  and  when  he  heard  any  unusual  noise  in  the 
palace,  says  his  historian,  he  would  go  to  the  window, 
to  see  if  the  tumult  were  not  occasioned  by  an  attempt 
to  release  the  prisoner. ^s  There  was  little  cause  for 
apprehension  in  regard  to  a  people  so  well  disciplined 
to  obedience  as  the  Castilians  under  Philip  the  Second. 
But  it  is  an  ominous  circumstance  for  a  prisoner  that  he 
should  become  the  occasion  of  such  apprehension. 

Philip,  however,  was  not  induced  by  his  fears  to 
mitigate  in  any  degree  the  rigor  of  his  son's  confine- 
ment, which  produced  the  effect  to  have  been  expected 

35  "  No  salio  el  Rey  de  Madrid,  ni  aun  a  Aranjuez,  ni  a  San  Lorenzo 
a  ver  su  fabrica,  tan  atento  al  negocio  del  Principe  estaba,  i  sospechoso 
a  las  murmuraciones  de  sus  pueblos  fieles  i  reverentes,  que  ruidos  es- 
traordinarios  en  su  Palacio  le  hazian  mirar,  si  eran  tumultos  para  sacar 
a  su  Alteza  de  su  camara."    Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  viii.  cap.  5. 


HIS  RIGOROUS   CONFINEMENT.  517 

on  one  of  his  fiery,  ungovernable  temper.  At  first  he 
was  thrown  into  a  state  bordering  on  frertzy,  and,  it  is 
said,  more  than  once  tried  to  make  away  with  himself. 
As  he  found  that  thus  to  beat  against  the  bars  of  his 
prison-house  was  only  to  add  to  his  distresses,  he 
resigned  himself  in  sullen  silence  to  his  fate,  —  the 
sullenness  of  despair.  In  his  indifference  to  all  around 
him,  he  ceased  to  take  an  interest  in  his  own  spiritual 
concerns.  Far  from  using  the  religious  books  in  his 
possession,  he  would  attend  to  no  act  of  devotion, 
refusing  even  to  confess,  or  to  admit  his  confessor  into 
his  presence. 3*  These  signs  of  fatal  indifference,  if  not 
of  positive  defection  from  the  Faith,  gave  great  alarm  to 
Philip,  who  would  not  willingly  see  the  soul  thus  perish 
with  the  body.3^  In  this  emergency  he  employed 
Suarez,  the  prince's  almoner,  who  once  had  some 
influence  over  his  master,  to  address  him  a  letter  of 
expostulation.  The  letter  has  been  preserved,  and  is 
too  remarkable  to  be  passed  by  in  silence. 

Suarez  begins  with  reminding  Carlos  that  his  rash 
conduct  had  left  him  without  partisans  or  friends.  The 
effect  of  his  present  course,  instead  of  mending  his 
condition,  could  only  serve  to  make  it  worse.  "What 
will  the  world  say,"  continues  the  ecclesiastic,  "when 
it  shall  learn  that  you  now  refuse  to  confess, — when, 
too,  it  shall  discover  other  dreadful  things  of  which 

3<>  "  Onde  fu  chiamato  il  confessore  et  il  medico,  ma  egli  seguitando 
nella  sua  disperatione  non  volse  ascoltare  n^  I'unno  nfe  I'altro."  Let- 
tera  del  Nunzio.,  MS. — My  copy  of  this  letter,  perhaps  through  the 
inadvertence  of  the  transcriber,  is  without  date. 

37  "  Ne  volendo  in  alcun  mode  curare  ne  il  corpo  n^  1'  anima,  la 
qual  cosa  faceva  stare  il  R^  et  gli  altri  con  molto  dispiacere,  vedendoli 
massima  di  continue  crescere  il  male,  et  mancar  la  virtu  '     Ibid. 
Philip.— Vol.  II.  44 


5ii 


DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 


you  have  been  guilty,  some  of  which  are  of  such  a 
nature  that,  did  .they  concern  any  other  than  your 
highness,  the  Holy  Office  would  be  led  to  inquire  whether 
the  author  of  them  were  in  truth  a  Christian  ?  ^  It  is 
in  the  bitterness  and  anguish  of  my  heart  that  I  must 
declare  to  your  highness  that  you  are  not  only  in 
danger  of  forfeiting  your  worldly  estate,  but,  what  is 
worse,  your  own  soul."  And  he  concludes  by  im- 
ploring Carlos,  as  the  only  remedy,  to  return  to  his 
obedience  to  God,  and  to  the  king,  who  is  His  repre- 
sentative on  earth. 

But  the  admonitions  of  the  honest  almoner  had  as 
little  effect  on  the  unhappy  youth  as  the  prayers  of  his 
attendants.  The  mental  excitement  under  which  he 
labored,  combined  with  the  want  of  air  and  exercise, 
produced  its  natural  eifect  on  his  health.  Every  day 
he  became  more  and  more  emaciated ;  while  the  fever 
which  had  so  long  preyed  on  his  constitution  now 
burned  in  his  veins  with  greater  fury  than  ever.  To 
allay  the  intolerable  heat,  he  resorted  to  such  desperate 
expedients  as  seemed  to  intimate,  says  the  Papal  nun- 
cio, that  if  debarred  from  laying  violent  hands  on  him- 
self he  would   accomplish  the  same  end  in  a  slower 

38  "  Vea  V.  A.  que  hardn  y  dirdn  todos  quando  se  entienda  que  no 
se  confiesa,  y  se  vayan  descubriendo  otras  cosas  terribles,  que  le  son 
tanto,  que  llegan  d.  que  el  Santo  Oficio  tuviera  mucha  entrada  en  otro 
para  saber  si  era  cristiano  6  no."  Carta  de  Hernan  Suarez  de  Toledo 
al  Principe,  Marzo  18,  1568,  MS.* 


*  [The  apparent  significance  of  this  passage  is  much  weakened  by 
the  fact  that  the  circumstances  under  which  the  letter  was  written 
make  it  extremely  doubtful  whether  it  was  not  intended  to  serve  the 
purpose  of  the  prince's  enemies  and  pretended  judges. — Ed.] 


HIS  EXCESSES. 


519 


way,  but  not  less  sure.  He  deluged  the  floor  with 
water,  not  a  little  to  the  inconvenience  of  the  com- 
panions of  his  prison,  and  walked  about  for  hours, 
half  naked,  with  bare  feet,  on  the  cold  pavement. ^^ 
He  caused  a  warming-pan  filled  with  ice  and  snow  to 
be  introduced  several  times  in  a  night  into  his  bed, 
and  let  it  remain  there  for  hours  together.''"  As  if  this 
were  not  enough,  he  would  gulp  down  such  draughts 
of  snow-water  as  distance  any  achievement  on  record 
in  the  annals  of  hydropathy.  He  pursued  the  same 
mad  course  in  respect  to  what  he  ate.  He  would  ab- 
stain from  food  an  incredible  number  of  days,"*'  and 
then,  indulging  in  proportion  to  his  former  abstinence, 
would  devour  a  pasty  of  four  partridges,  with  all  the 
paste,  at  a  sitting,  washing  it  down  with  three  gallons 
or  more  of  iced  water  !  ^ 

39  "  Spogliarsi  nudo,  et  solo  con  una  robba  di  taffetk  su  le  carni  stai 
quasi  di  continuo  ad  una  finestra,  dove  tirava  vento,  caminare  con  li 
piedi  discalzi  per  la  camara  que  tuttavia  faceva  stare  adacquata  tanto 
che  sempre  ci  era  1'  acqua  per  tutto."    Lettera  del  Nunzio,  MS. 

40  "  Farsi  raffredare  ogni  notte  due  o  tre  volti  il  letto  con  uno 
scaldaletto  pieno  di  neve,  et  tenerlo  le  notte  intiere  nel  letto."     Ibid. 

41  Three  days,  according  to  one  authority.  (Lettera  di  Nobili  di 
30  di  Luglio,  1568,  MS.)  Another  swells  the  number  to  nine  days 
(Carta  de  Gomez  Manrique,  MS.) ;  and  a  third — one  of  Philip's  cab- 
inet ministers — has  the  assurance  to  prolong  the  prince's  fast  to  eleven 
days,  in  which  he  allows  him,  however,  an  unlimited  quantity  of  cold 
water:  "  Ansi  se  determine  de  no  comer  y  en  esta  determinacion 
pascaron  onze  dias  sin  que  bastasen  persuasiones  ni  otras  diligencias 
d  que  tomase  cosa  bevida  ni  que  fuese  para  salud  sino  aqua  fria." 
Carta  de  Francisco  de  Erasso,  MS. 

4*  "  Doppo  essere  stato  tre  giorni  senza  mangiare  molto  fantastic© 
et  bizzaro  mangi6  un  pasticcio  fredolo  di  quatri  perdici  con  tutta  la 
pasta:  et  il  medesimo  giorno  bevve  trecento  once  d'aqqua  fredda." 
Lettera  di  Nobili,  Liiglio  30, 1568,  MS. — Yet  Carlos  might  have  found 


520 


DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 


No  constitution  could  long  withstand  such  violent 
assaults  as  these.    The  constitution  of  Carlos  gradually 


tc\thi 


warrant  for  his  proceedings,  in  regard  tosthe  use  of  snow  and  iced 
water,  in  the  prescriptions  of  more  than  one  doctor  of  his  tim&>  De 
Castro — who  displays  much  ingenuity,  and  a  careful  study  of  authori- 
ties, in  his  discussion  of  this  portion  of  Philip's  history — quotes  the 
writings  of  two  of  these  worthies,  one  of  whom  tells  us  that  the  use 
of  snow  had  increased  to  such  an  extent  that  not  only  was  it  recom- 
mended to  patients  in  their  drink,  but  also  to  cool  their  sheets ;  and 
he  forthwith  prescribes  a  warming-pan,  to  be  used  in  the  same  way  as 
it  was  by  Carlos.     Historia  de  los  Protestantes  Espanoles,  p.  370.*" 


*  [In  the  paragraph  to  which  the  above  note  is  appended,  the 
author  has  mixed  up  details  which  belong  to  different  periods,  and 
which  it  is  essential  to  keep  distinct.  The  long  abstinence  from  food, 
evincing  an  actual  intention  of  suicide, — proceeding,  as  M.  Gachard 
remarks,  from  a  natural  despair  when  the  unhappy  victim  could  no 
longer  feel  any  doubt  as  to  the  fate  reserved  for  him, — occurred  in 
February.  The  king,  when  informed  of  it,  coolly  remarked  that  his 
son  would  eat  when  he  was  hungry.  The  prediction  proved  correct, 
and,  instead  of  being  injured  by  his  long  fast,  the  health  of  Carlos 
seemed  to  be  improved  by  it.  His  mood  was  also  changed :  he  con- 
fessed and  received  the  eucharist, — a  state  of  things  which  led  to 
hopes  that  his  liberation  would  shortly  take  place.  Philip,  however, 
in  a  letter  to  his  sister,  the  empress,  wrote  that  it  was  a  mistake  to 
infer  from  the  prince's  having  been  allowed  to  receive  the  communion 
that  there  was  no  defect  in  his  understanding :  in  such  cases  there 
were  moments  when  the  intellect  was  more  sane  than  at  others,  and, 
moreover,  one's  mind  might  be  sufficiently  sound  for  the  right  per- 
formance of  private  and  personal  acts  and  yet  be  altogether  defective 
in  matters  pertaining  to  government  and  public  affairs.  The  incident 
had,  therefore,  he  said,  made  no  change  in  his  intention.  At  what  time 
Carlos  had  recourse  to  the  hygiene  of  ice  and  snow  (for  there  is  no 
pretext  that  these  were  employed  with  a  direct  intention  of  harming 
himself)  is  somewhat  uncertain.  The  practice  is  mentioned,  in  what 
may  be  called  the  official  reports,  as  the  direct  cause  of  his  illness  and 
death.  M.  Gachard  says  it  would  be  easy  not  only  to  add  to  the  evi- 
dence Do  Castro  lias  adduced  of  the  common  use  of  these  remedies,  but 


HIS  LAST  MOMENTS.  521 

sank  under  them.  His  stomach,  debilitated  by  long 
inaction,  refused  to  perform  the  extraordinary  tasks 
that  were  imposed  on  it.  He  was  attacked  by  inces- 
sant vomiting;  dj^sentery  set  in;  and  his  strength 
rapidly  failed.  The  physician,  Olivares,  who  alone 
saw  the  patient,  consulted  with  his  brethren  in  the 
apartments  of  Ruy  Gomez. "^  Their  remedies  failed  to 
restore  the  exhausted  energies  of  nature ;  and  it  was 
soon  evident  that  the  days  of  Carlos  were  numbered. 

To  no  one  could  such  an  announcement  have  given 
less  concern  than  to  Carlos ;  for  he  had  impatiently 

43  "  Visitabale  el  Doctor  Olivares  Protomedico  i  salia  a  consultar 
con  sus  cbnpaiieros  en  presencia  de  Rui  Gomez  de  Silva  la  curacion, 
curso  i  accidentes  de  la  enfermedad."  Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib. 
vii.  cap.  22. 

to  prove  that  Carlos  had  been  in  the  habit  of  employing  them  long 
before  his  confinement.  But  he  very  properly  refuses  to  allow  any 
weight  to  a  jelation  of  facts  coming  from  so  suspicious  a  source; 
and,  even  if  its  correctness  were  established,  it  would,  as  he  justly 
argues,  leave  the  responsibility  on  the  king  himself.  It  was,  in  fact, 
an  outrage  to  common  sense  to  charge  any  such  excesses,  or  their 
results,  on  a  prisoner  who  was  under  incessant  surveillance  day  and 
night,  and  who  was  not  permitted  to  cut  his  own  food.  "Who,"  asks 
M.  Gachard,  "  procured  for  him  the  iced  water  which  he  used  so  im- 
moderately, and  the  ice  which  he  placed  in  his  bed?  Did  not  Ruy 
Gomez,  I'ame  damnee  du  roi,  if  I  may  be  pardoned  the  expression, 
preside  over  all  the  details  of  the  regimen  to  which  the  grandson  of 
Charles  the  Fifth  was  subjected?"  The  weakness  of  the  apology  put 
forth  in  a  circular  to  the  foreign  ministers — pretending  that  the  conse- 
quences were  not  anticipated,  and  that  if  restrained  from  tliese  acts 
the  prince  would  have  committed  others  "still  more  fatal"  (!) — needs 
no  remark.  With  regard  to  the  last  and  most  important  of  the 
excesses  attributed  to  Carlos,  his  devouring  a  pasty  of  four  partridges, 
— not,  as  Prescott  seems  to  intimate,  on  several  occasions,  but  on  one 
only,  and  this  immediately  before  his  final  illness, — a  further  mention 
of  the  circumstances  will  be  made  in  a  subsequent  note. — ED. 
44* 


522 


DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 


looked  to  death  as  to  his  release.  From  this  hour  he 
seemed  to  discard  all  earthly  troubles  from  his  mind, 
as  he  fixed  his  thoughts  steadfastly  on  the  future.  At 
his  own  request,  his  confessor,  Chavres,  and  Suarez, 
his  almoner,  were  summoned,  and  assisted  him  with 
their  spiritual  consolations.  The  closing  scenes  are 
recorded  by  the  pen  of  the  nuncio : 

"Suddenly  a  wonderful  change  seemed  to  be  wrought 
by  divine  grace  in  the  heart  of  the  prince.  Instead  of 
vain  and  empty  talk,  his  language  became  that  of  a 
sensible  man.  He  sent  for  his  confessor,  devoutly 
confessed,  and,  as  his  illness  was  such  that  he  could 
not  receive  the  host,  he  humbly  adored  it ;  showing 
throughout  great  contrition,  and,  though  not  refusing 
the  proffered  remedies,  manifesting  such  contempt  for 
the  things  of  this  world,  and  such  a  longing  for  heaven, 
that  one  would  have  said  God  had  reserved  for  this 
hour  the  sum  of  all  his  grace." ''^  • 

He  seemed  to  feel  an  assurance  that  he  was  to  sur- 
vive till  the  vigil  of  St.  James,  the  patron  saint  of  his 
country.  When  told  that  this  would  be  four  days  later, 
he  said,  "So  long  will  my  misery  endure. "''^  jje 
would  willingly  have  seen  his  father  once  more  before 
his  death.  But  his  confessor,  it  is  said,  dissuaded  the 
monarch,*  on  the  ground  that  Carlos  was  now  in  so 

44  "  Mostrando  molta  contritione,  et  se  bene  si  lassava  curare  il 
corpo  per  non  causarsi  egli  stesso  la  morte,  mostrava  perd  tanto 
disprezzo  delle  cose  del  mondo,  et  tanto  desiderio  delle  celesti ;  che 
pareva  veramente  che  Nostro  Signore  Dio  gli  havesse  riserbato  il 
cuinulo  di  tutti  le  gratie  h.  quel  ponto."     Lettera  del  Nunzio,  MS. 

43  "  Tanto  hanno  da  durare  le  mie  miserie."     Ibid. 


[*  M.  Gachard  considers  this  excuse  as  unfounded.     But,  admit- 
ting it,  he  adds,  "should  Philip  have  followed  this  counsel?  .  .  .  Had 


HIS  LAST  MOMENTS.  523 

happy  a  frame  of  mind  that  it  were  better  not  to  dis- 
turb it  by  drawing  off  his  attention  to  worldly  objects. 
Philip,  however,  took  the  occasion,  when  Carlos  lay 
asleep  or  insensible,  to  enter  the  chamber ;  and,  steal- 
ing softly  behind  the  prince  of  Eboli  and  the  grand 
prior,  Antonio  de  Toledo,  he  stretched  out  his  hand 
towards  the  bed,  and,  making  the  sign  of  the  cross, 
gave  the  parting  benediction  to  his  dying  son."® 

Nor  was  Carlos  allowed  the  society  of  his  amiable 
step-mother7~the  queen,~nOT~6f~lTi5"TinTrr"jfcTnna^ToI 
sw^STen  byTheir jkind^ ^15?ntioMJT^^]tterness^_o f_ 
death. *7  It  was  his  sad  fate  to  die,  as  he  had  lived 
throughout  his  confinement,  under  the  cold  gaze  of 
his  enemies.  Yet  he  died  at  peace  with  all;  and  some 
of  the  last  words  that  he  uttered  were  to  forgive  his 
father  for  his  imprisonment,  and  the  ministers — naming 
Ruy  Gomez  and  Espinosa  in  particular — who  advised 
him  to  it.''^ 

46  "  And  so,"  says  Cabrera,  somewhat  bluntly,  "  the  king  withdrew 
to  his  apartment,  with  more  sorrow  in  his  heart,  and  less  care :" 
"Algunas  oras  antes  de  su  fallecimiento,  por  entre  los  onbros  del 
Prior  don  Antonio  i  de  Rui  Gomez  le  ech6  su  bendicion,  i  se  recogi6 
en  su  camara  co  mas  dolor  i  menos  cuidado."  Filipe  Segundo,  lib. 
viii.  cap.  5. 

47  "II  R^  non  r  ha  visitato,  ne  lassato  che  la  Regina  ne  la  Princi- 
pessa  lo  veggiano,  forse  considerando  che  poi  che  gik  si  conosceva 
disperato  il  caso  suo,  queste  visite  simih  poterono  piu  presto  contur- 
bare  1'  una  et  1'  altra  delle  parti,  che  aiutarli  in  cosa  nessuna."  Lettera 
del  Nunzio,  MS. 

48  "  II  Prencipe  di  Spagna  avante  la  morte  diceva,  che  perdoneva  a 
tutti,  et  nominatamente  al  Padre,  che  1'  haveva  ca'cerato,  et  a  Ruy 


he  not  the  bowels  of  a  father?"      One   can  feel  no  hesitation  in 
answering  both  questions  in  the  negative. — Ed.] 


524 


DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 


Carlos  now  grew  rapidly  more  feeble,  having  scarce 
strength  enough  left  to  listen  to  the  exhortations  of  his 
confessor,  and  with  low,  indistinct  murmurings  to  adore 
the  crucifix  which  he  held  constantly  in  his  hand.  On 
the  twenty-fourth  of  July,  soon  after  midnight,  he  was 
told .  it  was  the  Vigil  of  St.  James.  Then  suddenly 
rousing,  with  a  gleam  of  joy  on  his  countenance,  he 
intimated  his  desire  for  his  confessor  to  place  the  holy 
taper  in  his  hand ;  and  feebly  beating  his  breast,  as  if 
to  invoke  the  mercy  of  Heaven  on  his  transgressions, 
he  fell  back,  and  expired  without  a  groan. '^^  "No 
Catholic,"  says  Nobili,  "ever  made  a  more  Catholic 
end."  50 

Such  is  the  account  given  us  of  the  last  hours  of  this 
most  unfortunate  prince,  by  the  papal  nuncio  and  the 
Tuscan  minister,  and  repeated,  with  slight  discrepan- 
cies, by  most  of  the  Castilian  writers  of  that  and  the 
following  age. 5'  It  is  a  singular  circumstance  that,  al- 
though we  have  such  full  reports  both  of  what  preceded 
and  what  followed  the  death  of  Carlos,  from  the  French 

Gomez,  cardinal  Presidente,  Dottor  Velasco,  et  altri,  per  lo  consiglio 
de'  quali  credeva  essere  stato  preso."  Lettera  del  Nunzio,  Luglio 
28,  1568,  MS. 

49  "  Et  battendosi  il  petto  come  poteva,  essendoli  mancata  la  virtu 
a  poco  a  poco,  ritirandosi  la  vita  quasi  da  membro  in  membro,  espird 
con  molta  tranquillity  et  constanza."     Lettera  del  Nunzio,  MS. 

so  "  Et  testificono  quelli,  che  vi  si  trovorno  che  Christiano  nessuno 
pu5  morir  pivi  cattolicamente,  ne  in  maggior  sentimento  di  lui." 
Lettera  di  Nobili,  Luglio  30,  1568,  MS. 

5'  See,  among  others,  Quintana,  Historia  de  la  Antiguedad,  Nobleza 
y  Grandcza  de  la  Villa  y  Corte  de  Madrid  (1629),  fol.  368, — Colme- 
nares,  Historia  de  la  Insigne  Ciudad  de  Segovia  (Madrid,  1640),  cap, 
43, — Pinclo,  Anales  de  Madrid,  MS., — Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib. 
viii.  cap.  5, — Herrera,  Historia  general,  lib.  xv.  cap.  3, — Carta  de 
Francisco  de  Erasso,  MS., — Carta  de  Gomez  Manrique,  MS. 


LLORENTE'S  ACCOUNT. 


525 


ambassador,  the  portion  of  his  correspondence  which 
embraces  his  death  has  been  withdrawn,  whether  by 
accident  or  design,  from  the  archives. 5="  But  probably 
no  one  without  the  walls  of  the  palace  had  access  to 
better  sources  of  information  than  the  two  ministers 
first  mentioned,  especially  the  papal  nuncio.  Their 
intelligence  may  well  have  been  derived  from  some 
who  had  been  about  the  person  of  Carlos.  If  so,  it 
could  not  have  been  communicated  without  the  appro- 
bation of  Philip,  who  may  have  been  willing  that  the 
world  should  understand  that  his  son  had  died  true  to 
the  Faith. 

A  very  different  account  of  the  end  of  Carlos  is 
given  by  Llorente.  And  as  this  writer,  the  secretary 
of  the  Inquisition,  had  access'  to  very  important  ma- 

52  Raumer,  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  147. — 
Von  Raumer  has  devoted  some  fifty  pages  of  his  fragmentary  com- 
pilation to  the  story  of  Don  Carlos,  and  more  especially  to  the  closing 
scenes  of  his  life.  The  sources  are  of  the  most  unexceptionable 
kind,  being  chiefly  the  correspondence  of  the  French  ministers  with 
their  court,  existing  among  the  MSS.  in  the  Royal  Library  at  Paris. 
The  selections  made  are  pertinent  in  their  character,  and  will  be 
found  of  the  greatest  importance  to  illustrate  this  dark  passage  in  the 
history  of  the  time.  If  I  have  not  arrived  at  the  same  conclusions 
in  all  respects  as  those  of  the  illustrious  German  scholar,  it  may  be 
that  my  judgment  has  been  modified  by  the  wider  range  of  materials 
at  my  command.® 

*  [Fragments  of  two  letters  written  by  the  French  ambassador,  De 
Fourquevaulx,  on  the  26th  of  July,  have  been  preserved.  They  notice 
the  death  of  Carlos  as  proceeding  from  the  excesses  mentioned  in  tlie 
text.  In  one  of  them,  however,  the  writer  says,  "  I  saw  his  face  when 
his  body  was  deposited  with  the  monks  of  San  Domingo  el  Real :  it 
showed  no  effects  of  disease,  except  that  it  was  somewhat  yellow ;  but 
I  understand  that  the  rest  of  the  body  was  mere  bones."  Gachanl. 
Don  Carlos  et  Philippe  II.,  tom.   ii.,  Appendice  C. — Ed.] 


526  DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 

terials,  and  as  his  account,  though  somewhat  prolix,  is 
altogether  remarkable,  I  cannot  pass  it  by  in  silence. 

According  to  Llorente,  the  process  already  noticed 
as  having  been  instituted  against  Carlos  was  brought  to 
a  close  only  a  short  time  before  his  death.  No  notice 
of  it,  during  all  this  time,  had  been  given  to  the  pris 
oner,  and  no  counsel  was  employed  in  his  behalf.  By 
tlie  ninth  of  July  the  affair  was  sufficiently  advanced 
for  a  "summary  judgment."  It  resulted,  from  the 
evidence,  that  the  accused  was  guilty  of  treason  in 
both  the  first  and  second  degree, — as  having  endeavored 
to  compass  the  death  of  the  king,  his  father,  and  as 
having  conspired  to  usurp  the  sovereignty  of  Flanders. 
The  counsellor  Munatones,  in  his  report  which  he  laid 
before  the  king,  while  he  stated  that  the  penalty 
imposed  by  the  law  on  every  other  subject  for  these 
crimes  was  death,  added  that  his  majesty,  by  his  sov- 
ereign authority,  might  decide  that  the  heir-apparent 
was  placed  by  his  rank  above  the  reach  of  ordinary 
laws.  And  it  was  further  in  his  power  to  mitigate  or 
dispense  with  any  penalty  whatever,  when  he  consid- 
ered it  for  the  good  of  his  subjects.  In  this  judgment 
both  the  ministers,  Ruy  Gomez  and  Espinosa,  declared 
their  concurrence. 

To  this  the  king  replied  that,  though  his  feelings 
moved  him  to  follow  the  suggestion  of  his  ministers, 
his  conscience  would  not  permit  it.  He  could  not 
think  that  he  should  consult  the  good  of  his  people  by 
placing  over  them  a  monarch  so  vicious  in  his  dispo- 
sition and  so  fierce  and  sanguinary  in  his  temper  as 
Carlos.  However  agonizing  it  might  be  to  his  feelings 
as  a  father,  he  must  allow  the  law  to  take  its  course 


LLORENTE'S  ACCOUNT. 


527 


Yet,  after  all,  he  said,  it  might  not  be  necessary  to 
proceed  to  this  extremity.  The  prince's  health  was  in 
so  critical  a  state  that  it  was  only  necessary  to  relax  the 
precautions  in  regard  to  his  diet,  and  his  excesses  would 
soon  conduct  him  to  the  tomb  !  One  point  only  was 
essential,  that  he  should  be  so  well  advised  of  his  situ- 
ation that  he  should  be  willing  to  confess  and  make 
his  peace  with  Heaven  before  he  died.  This  was  the 
greatest  proof  of  love  which  he  could  give  to  his  son 
and  to  the  Spanish  nation. 

Ruy  Gomez  and  Espinosa  both  of  them  inferred 
from  this  singular  ebullition  of  parental  tenderness  that 
they  could  not  further  the  real  intentions  of  the  king 
better  than  by  expediting  as  much  as  possible  the  death 
of  Carlos.  Ruy  Gomez  accordingly  communicated  his 
views  to  Olivares,  the  prince's  physician.  This  he  did 
in  such  ambiguous  and  mysterious  phrase  as,  while  it 
intimated  his  meaning,  might  serve  to  veil  the  enor- 
mity of  the  crime  from  the  eyes  of  the  party  who  was 
to  perpetrate  it.  No  man  was  more  competent  to  this 
delicate  task  than  the  prince  of  Eboli,  bred  from  his 
youth  in  courts,  and  trained  to  a  life  of  dissimulation. 
Olivares  readily  comprehended  the  drift  of  his  dis- 
course,— that  the  thing  required  of  him  was  to  dispose 
of  the  prisoner  in  such  a  way  that  his  death  should 
appear  natural  and  that  the  honor  of  the  king  should 
not  be  compromised.  He  raised  no  scruples,  but 
readily  signified  his  willingness  faithfully  to  execute 
the  will  of  his  sovereign.  Under  these  circumstances, 
on  the  twentieth  of  July,  a  purgative  dose  was  admin-  .j^ 
istered  to  the  unsuspecting  patient,  who,  as  may  be  i\ 
imagined,  rapidly  grew  worse.     It  was  a  consolation  to 


528  DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 

his  father  that,  when  advised  of  his  danger,  Carlos 
consented  to  receive  his  confessor.  Thus,  though  the 
body  perished,  the  soul  was  saved. ^3 

Such  is  the  extraordinary  account  given  us  by  Llo- 
rente,  which,  if  true,  would  at  once  settle  the  question 
in  regard  to  the  death  of  Carlos.  But  Llorente,  with 
a  disingenuousness  altogether  unworthy  of  an  historian 
in  a  matter  of  so  grave  import,  has  given  us  no 
knowledge  of  the  sources  whence  his  information  was 
derived.  He  simply  says  that  they  are  "  certain  secret 
memoirs  of  the  time,  full  of  curious  anecdote,  which, 
though  not  possessing  precisely  the  character  of  authen- 
ticity, are  nevertheless  entitled  to  credit,  as  coming 
from  persons  employed  in  the  palace  of  the  king"  !=* 
Had  the  writer  condescended  to  acquaint  us  with  the 
names,  or  some  particulars  of  the  characters,  of  his 
authors,  we  might  have  been  able  to  form  some  estimate 
of  the  value  of  their  testimony.  His  omission  to  do 
this  may  lead  us  to  infer  that  he  had  not  perfect  confi- 
dence in  it  himself.  At  all  events,  it  compels  us  to 
trust  the  matter  entirely  to  his  own  discretion,  a  virtue 
which  those  familiar  with  his  inaccuracies  in  other 
matters  will  not  be  disposed  to  concede  to  him  in  a 
very  eminent  degree. ^s 

53  Llorente,  Histoire  de  I'lnquisition,  torn.  iii.  p.  171,  et  seq. 

54  "  Quoique  ces  documens  ne  soient  pas  authentiqueSi  ils  meritent 
qu'on  y  ajoute  foi,  en  ce  qu'ils  sent  de  certaines  personnes  employes 
dans  le  pakiis  du  roi."     Ibid.,  p.  171. 

55  TIuis,  for  example,  he  makes  the  contradictory  statements,  at  the 
distance  of  four  pages  from  each  other,  that  the  prince  did,  and  that 
he  did  not,  confide  to  Don  Jolin  his  desire  to  kill  his  father  (pp.  148, 
152).  The  fact  is  that  Llorente  in  a  manner  pledged  himself  to  solve 
the  mystery  of  the  prince's  death,  by  announcing  to  his  readers,  at 


VARIOUS  ACCOUNTS. 


529 


His  narrative,  moreover,  is  in  direct  contradiction 
to  the  authorities  I  have  ah^eady  noticed,  especially  to 
the  two  foreign  ministers  so  often  quoted,  who,  with 
the  advantages — not  a  few — that  they  possessed  for 
getting  correct  information,  were  indefatigable  in 
collecting  it.  "I  say  nothing,"  writes  the  Tuscan 
envoy,  alluding  to  the  idle  rumors  of  the  town,  "of 
gossip  unworthy  to  be  listened  to.  It  is  a  hard  thing 
to  satisfy  the  populace.  It  is  best  to  stick  to  the  truth, 
without  caring  for  the  opinions  of  those  who  talk  wildly 
of  improbable  matters,  Avhich  have  their  origin  in 
ignorance  and  malice.  "^^ 

Still,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  suspicions  of  foul  play 
to  Carlos  were  not  only  current  abroad,  but  were  enter- 
tained by  persons  of  higlier  rank  than  the  populace 
at  home, — where  it  could  not  be  safe  to  utter  them. 
Among  others,  the  celebrated  Antonio  Perez,  one  of 
the  household  of  the  prince  of  EboliTTnlorms  us  that, 
"as  the  king  had  found  Carlos  guilty,  he  was  con- 
demned to  death  by  casuists  and  inquisitors.  But,  in 
order  that  the  execution  of  this  sentence  might  not  be 

the  outset,  that  "he  believed  he  had  discovered  the  truth."  One  fact 
he  must  be  allowed  to  have  established, — one  which,  as  secretary  of 
the  Inquisition,  he  had  the  means  of  verifying, — namely,  that  no  pro- 
cess was  ever  instituted  against  Carlos  by  the  Holy  Office.  This  was 
to  overturn  a  vulgar  error,  on  which  more  than  one  writer  of  fiction 
has  built  his  story. 

56  "  Le  cicalerie  et  novellacce  che  si  dicono  sono  molto  indigne 
d'essere  ascoltate,  non  che  scritte,  perch^  in  vero  il  satisfar  al  popo- 
laccio  in  queste  simili  cose  h  molto  difficile ;  et  meglio  h.  fare  siccome 
porta  il  giusto  et  1'  honesto,  senza  curarsi  del  giudicio  d'  huomini  in- 
sani,  et  che  parlano  senza  ragione  di  cose  impertinenti  et  impossibili 
di  autori  incerti,  dappochi  et  maligni."  Lettera  di  Nobili,  Luglio  30, 
1568.  MS. 

riiiiip.—YoL.  II.— X  45 


53° 


DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 


brought  too  palpably  before  the  public,  they  mixed  for 
four  months  together  a  slow  poison  in  his  food."  ^^ 

This  statement  agrees  to  a  certain  extent  with  that 
of  a  noble  Venetian,  Pietro  Giustiniani,  then  in  Cas- 
tile, who  assured  the  historian  De  Thou  that  "Philip, 
having  determined  on  the  death  of  his  son,  obtained  a 
sentence  to  that  effect  from  a  lawful  judge.  But,  in 
order  to  save  the  honor  of  the  sovereign,  the  sentence 
was  executed  in  secret,  and  Carlos  was  made  to  swallow 
some  poisoned  broth,  of  which  he  died  some  hours 
afterwards. ' '  ^^ 

Some  of  the  particulars  mentioned  by  Antonio  Perez 
may  be  thought  to  receive  confirmation  from  an  account 
given  by  the  French  minister,  Fourquevaulx,  in  a  letter 
dated  about  a  month  after  the  prince's  arrest.  "The 
prince,"  he  says,  "  becomes  visibly  thinner  and  more 
dried  up ;  and  his  eyes  are  sunk  in  his  head.  They 
give  him  sometimes  strong  soups  and  capon  broths,  in 
which  amber  and  other  nourishing  things  are  dissolved, 
that  he  may  not  wholly  lose  his  strength  and  fall  into 
decrepitude.  These  soups  are  prepared  privately  in 
the  chamber  of  Ruy  Gomez,  through  which  one  passes 
into  that  of  the  prince." 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  a  Castilian  writer 
should  have  the  temerity  to  assert  that  the  death  of 
Carlos  was  brought  about  by  violence.  Yet  Cabrera, 
the  best-informed  historian  of  the  period,  who  in  his 

57  LeUer  of  Antonio  Perez  to  the  counsellor  Du  Vair,  ap.  Raunier, 
Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  153. 

58  "  Mais  afin  de  sauver  I'honneur  du  sang  royal,  I'arret  fut  execute 
en  secret,  et  on  Uii  fit  avaler  un  bouillon  empoisonn^,  dont  il  mourut 
quelques  heures  apr^s,  au  commencement  de  sa  vingt-troisi^me  an- 
nt5e."     De  Thou,  Ilistoire  univcrsclle,  torn.  v.  p.  436. 


VARIOUS  ACCOUNTS.  ^31 

boyhood  liad  frequent  access  to  the  house  of  Ruy 
Gomez,  and  even  to  the  royal  palace,  while  he  describes 
the  excesses  of  Carlos  as  the  cause  of  his  untimely  end, 
makes  some  mysterious  intimations,  which,  without  any 
forced  construction,  seem  to  point  to  the  agency  of 
others  in  bringing  about  that  event. ^^ 

Strada,  the  best-informed,  on  the  whole,  of  the  for- 
eign writers  of  the  period,  and  who,  as  a  foreigner, 
had  not  the  same  motives  for  silence  as  a  Spaniard, 
qualifies  his  account  of  the  prince's  death  as  having 
taken  place  in  the  natural  way,  by  saying,  "if  indeed 
he  did  not  perish  by  violence."*"  The  prince  of 
Orange,  in  his  bold  denunciation  of  Philip,  does  not 
hesitate  to  proclaim  him  the  murderer  of  his  son.*' 
And  that  inquisitive  gossip-monger,  Brantome,  amidst 
the  bitter  jests  and  epigrams  which,  he  tells  us,  his 
countrymen  levelled  at  Philip  for  his  part  in  this  trans- 
action, quotes  the  authority  of  a  Spaniard  of  rank  for 
the  assertion  that  after  Carlos  had  been  condemned  by 
his  father — in  opposition  to  the  voice  of  his  council — ■ 

59  "  Mas  es  peligroso  manejar  vidrios,  i  dar  ocasion  de  tragedias  fa- 
mosas,  acaecimientos  notables,  violentas  muertes  por  los  secretes  exe- 
cutores  Reales  no  sabidas,  i  por  inesperadas  terribles,  i  por  la  estraneza 
i  rigor  de  justicia,  despues'de  largas  advertencias  a  los  que  no  cui- 
dando  dellas  incurrieron  en  crimen  de  lesa  Magestad."  Cabrera, 
Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  vii.  cap.  22. — The  admirable  obscurity  of  the 
passage,  in  which  the  historian  has  perfectly  succeeded  in  mystifying 
his  critics,  has  naturally  led  them  to  suppose  that  more  was  meant  by 
him  than  meets  the  eye. 

*°  "  Ex  morbo  ob  alimenta  partim  obstinate  recusata,  partim  in- 
temperanter  adgesta,  nimiamque  nivium  refrigerationem,  super  animi 
segritudinem  {si  tnodh  vis  ab/uil)  in  Divi  Jacobi  pervigilio  extinctus 
est."     Strada,  De  Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  378. 

^'  Apologie,  ap.  Dumont,  Corps  diplomatique,  torn.  v.  par.  i,  p. 
3S9. 


532  DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 

the  prince  was  found  dead  in  his  chamber,  smothered 
with  a  towel !  ^  Indeed,  the  various  modes  of  death 
assigned  to  him  are  sufficient  evidence  of  the  un- 
certainty as  to  any  one  of  them.*^  A  writer  of  more 
recent  date  does  not  scruple  to  assert  that  the  only 
liberty  granted  to  Carlos  was  that  of  selecting  the 
manner  of  his  death  out  of  several  kinds  that  were 
proposed  to  him;*'* — an  incident  which  has  since 
found  a  more  suitable  place  in  one  of  the  many  dramas 
that  have  sprung  from  his  mysterious  story. 

In  all  this  the  historian  must  admit  there  is  but  little 
evidence  of  positive  value.  The  authors — with  the  ex- 
ception of  Antonio  Perez,  who  had  his  account,  he  tells 
us,  from  the  prince  of  Eboli — are  by  no  means  likely 
to  have  had  access  to  sure  sources  of  information; 

62  "  Parquoy  le  roi  conclud  sur  ses  raisons  que  le  meilleur  estoit  de 
le  faire  mourir;  dont  un  matin  on  le  trouva  en  prison  estouffe  d'un 
linge."  Brantome,  Qiuvres,  torn.  i.  p.  320. — A  taste  for  jesting  on 
this  subject  seems  to  have  been  still  in  fashion  at  the  French  court  as 
late  as  Louis  the  Fourteenth's  time.  At  least,  we  find  that  monarch 
telling  some  one  that  "  he  had  sent  Bussy  Rabutin  to  the  Bastile  for 
his  own  benefit,  as  Philip  the  Second  said  when  he  ordered  his  son  to 
be  strangled."  Lettres  de  Madame  de  Sevigne  (Paris,  1822),  torn. 
viii.  p.  368. 

*3  A  French  contemporary  chronicler  dismisses  his  account  of  the 
death  of  Carlos  with  the  remark  that,  of  all  the  passages  in  the  his- 
tory of  this  reign,  the  fate  of  the  young  prince  is  the  one  involved  in 
the  most  impenetrable  mystery.  Matthieu,  Breve  Compendio  de  la 
Vida  privada  de  Felipe  Segundo  (Span,  trans.),  MS. 

^4  The  Abbe  St.  Real  finds  himself  unable  to  decide  whether  Carlos 
took  poison,  or,  like  Seneca,  had  his  veins  opened  in  a  warm  bath,  or, 
finally,  whether  he  was  strangled  with  a  silk  cord  by  four  slaves  sent 
by  his  father  to  do  the  deed,  in  Oriental  fashion.  (Verdadera  Histo- 
ria  de  la  Vida  y  Muerte  del  Principe  Don  Carlos,  Span,  trans.,  MS.) 
The  doubts  of  St.  Real  are  echoed  with  formal  solemnity  by  Leti. 
Vita  di  Filippo  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  559. 


SUSPICIOUS  CIRCUMSTANCES. 


533 


while  their  statements  are  contradictory  to  one  an- 
other, and  stand  in  direct  opposition  to  those  of  the 
Tuscan  minister  and  of  the  nuncio,  the  latter  of  whom 
had,  probably,  better  knowledge  of  what  was  passing 
in  the  councils  of  the  monarch  than  any  other  of  the 
diplomatic  body.  Even  the  declaration  of  Antonio 
Perez,  so  important  on  many  accounts,  is  to  a  consid- 
erable degree  neutralized  by  the  fact  that  he  was  the 
mortal  enemy  of  Philip,  writing  in  exile,  with  a  price 
set  upon  his  head  by  the  man  whose  character  he  was 
assailing.  It  is  the  hard  fate  of  a  person  so  situated, 
that  even  truth  from  his  lips  fails  to  carry  with  it  con- 
viction.*s 

If  we  reject  his  explanation  of  the  matter,  we  shall 
find  ourselves  again  thrown  on  the  sea  of  conjecture, 
and  may  be  led  to  account  for  the  rumors  of  violence 

*s  Von  Raumer,  who  has  given  an  analysis  of  this  letter  of  Antonio 
Perez,  treats  it  lightly,  as  coming  from  "a  double-dealing,  bitter  enemy 
of  Philip,"  whose  word  on  such  a  subject  was  of  little  value.  (Six- 
teenth and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  155.)  It  was  certainly  a 
singular  proof  of  confidence  in  one  who  was  so  habitually  close  in  his 
concerns  as  the  prince  of  Eboli,  that  he  should  have  made  such  a 
communication  to  Perez.  Yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  narrative 
derives  some  confirmation  from  the  fact  that  the  preceding  portions 
of  the  letter  containing  it,  in  which  the  writer  describes  the  arrest  of 
Carlos,  conform  with  the  authentic  account  of  that  event  as  given  in 
the  text.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  both  De  Thou  and  Llorente 
concur  with  Perez  in  alleging  poison  as  the  cause  of  the  prince's 
death.  Though  even  here  there  is  an  important  discrepancy ;  Perez 
asserting  it  was  a  slow  poison,  taking  four  months  to  work  its  effect, 
while  the  other  authorities  say  that  its  operation  was  immediate. 
Their  general  agreement,  moreover,  in  regard  to  the  employment  of 
poison,  is  of  the  less  weight,  as  such  an  agency  would  be  the  one 
naturally  surmised  under  circumstances  where  it  would  be  desirable 
to  leave  no  trace  of  violence  on  the  body  of  the  victim. 


534  DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 

on  the  part  of  Philip  by  the  mystery  in  which  the 
whole  of  the  proceedings  was  involved,  and  the  popu- 
lar notion  of  the  character  of  the  monarch  who  di- 
rected them.  The  same  suspicious  circumstances  must 
have  their  influence  on  the  historian  of  the  present 
day,  as,  with  insufficient  though  more  ample  light  than 
was  enjoyed  by  contemporaries,  he  painfully  endeavors 
to  grope  his  way  through  this  obscure  passage  in  the 
life  of  Philip.  Many  reflections  of  ominous  import 
naturally  press  upon  his  mind.  From  the  first  hour\ 
of  the  prince's  confinement  it  was  determined,  as  weA 
have  seen,  that  he  was  never  to  be  released  from  it.  \ 
Yet  the  preparations  for  keeping  him  a  prisoner  were  \ 
on  so  extraordinary  a  scale,  and  imposed  such  a  burden 
on  men  of  the  highest  rank  in  the  kingdom,  as  seemed 
to  argue  that  his  confinement  was  not  to  be  long.  It 
is  a  common  saying, — as  old  as  Machiavelli, — that  to 
a  deposed  prince  the  distance  is  not  great  from  the 
throne  to  the  grave.  Carlos,  indeed,  had  never  worn 
a  crown.  But  there  seemed  to  be  the  same  reasons  as 
if  he  had,  for  abridging  the  term  of  his  imprisonment. 
All  around  the  prince  regarded  him  with  distrust. 
The  king,  his  father,  appeared  to  live,  as  we  have  seen, 
in  greater  apprehension  of  him  after  his  confinement 
than  before."  S**  The  ministers,  whom  Carlos  hated," 
says  the  nuncio,  "knew  well  that  it  would  be  their 
ruin  should  he  ever  ascend  the  throne."^  Thus,  while 

**  If  we  may  take  Brantome's  word,  there  was  some  ground  for 
such  apprehension  at  all  times:  "En  fin  il  estoit  un  terrible  masle;  et 
s'il  east  vescu,  assurez-vous  qu'il  s'en  fust  faict  acroire,  et  qu'il  eust 
mis  le  pere  en  curatelle."     CEuvres,  torn.  i.  p.  323. 

^7 "  Li  piu  favoriti  del  R6  erono  odiati  da  lui  a  morte,  et  adesso 


SUSPICIOUS  CIRCUMSTANCES.  535 

the  fears  and  the  interests  of  all  seemed  to  tend  to  his 
removal,  we  find  nothing  in  the  character  of  Philip  to 
counteract  the  tendency.  For  when  was  he  ever  known 
to  relax  his  grasp  on  the  victim  once  within  his  power, 
or  to  betray  any  feeling  of  compunction  as  to  sweeping 
away  arTobstacle  from  his  path  ?  One  has  only  to  call 
to  mind  the  long  confinement,  ending  with  the  mid- 
night execution,  of  Montigny,  the  open  assassination 
of  the  prince  of  Orange,  the  secret  assassination  of  tlie 
secretary  Escovedo,  the  unrelenting  persecution  of  Pe- 
rez, his  agent  in  that  murder,  and  his  repeated  attempts 
to  despatch  him  also  by  the  hand  of  the  bravo.  These 
are  passages  in  the  history  of  Philip  which  yet  remain 
to  be  presented  to  the  reader,  and  the  knowledge  of  ^rQ^'^*' 
v/hich  is  necessary  before  we  can  penetrate  into  the  .j^cO^^ 
depths  of  his  dark  and  unscrupulous  character.  CL'^'-f 


"Jho 


(:i^U 


If  it  be  thought  that  there  is  a  wide  difference  be 
tween  these  deeds  of  violence  and  the  murder  of  a  son, 
we  must  remember  that  in  affairs  of  religion  Philip 
acted  avowedly  on  the  principle  that  the  end  justifies 
the  means ;  that  one  of  the  crimes  charged  upon  Car- 
los was  defection  from  the  faith;  and  that  Philip  had 
once  replied  to  the  piteous  appeal  of  a  heretic  whom 
they  were  dragging  to  the  stake,  "Were  my  son  such 
a  wretch  as  thou  art,  I  would  myself  carry  the  fagots  to 
burn  him  !"^ 

tanto  piu,  et  quando  questo  venisse  a  regnare  si  teneriano  rovinati 
loro."     Lettera  del  Nunzio,  Febraio  14,  1568,  MS. 

68  Aiite,  vol.  i.  p.  396.* — It  is  in  this  view  that  Dr.  Salazar  de  Meri- 


l^ft^^U 


«  [M.  Gachard  remarks  that  he  was  inclined  to  discredit  this  terrible 
speech,  till  he  found  it  confirmed  by  a  passage  in  a  letter  of  the 


536  DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 

But,  in  whatever  light  we  are  to  regard  the  death  of 
Carlos, — whether  as  caused  by  violence,  or  by  those 
insane  excesses  in  which  he  was  allowed  to  plunge 
during  his  confinement, — in  either  event  the  responsi- 
bility, to  a  great  extent,  must  be  allowed  to  rest  on 
^Philip,  who,  if  he  did  not  directly  employ  the  hand 
"v^  of  the  assassin  to  take  the  life  of  his  son,  yet  by  his 
rigorous  treatment  drove  that  son  to  a  state  of  despera- 
tion that  brought  about  the  same  fatal  result.^  J7 

doza  does  not  shrink  from  asserting  that,  if  Phihp  did  make  a  sacrifice 
of  his  son,  it  rivalled  in  sublimity  that  of  Isaac  by  Abraham,  and  even 
that  of  Jesus  Christ  by  the  Almighty!  "  Han  dicho  de  el  lo  que  del 
Padre  Eterno,  que  no  perdono  d  su  propio  Hijo.  Lo  que  del  Patri- 
arca  Abraham  en  el  sacrificio  de  Isaac  su  unigenito.  A  todo  caso 
humano  excede  la  gloria  que  de  esto  le  resulta,  y  no  hay  con  quien 
comparalla."  (Dignidades  de  Castilla  y  Leon,  p.  417.)  He  closes 
this  rare  piece  of  courtly  blasphemy  by  assuring  us  that  in  point  of 
fact  Carlos  died  a  natural  death.  The  doctor  wrote  in  the  early  part 
of  Philip  the  Third's  reign,  when  the  manner  of  the  prince's  death 
was  delicate  ground  for  the  historian. 

^9  Philip  the  Second  is  not  the  only  Spanish  monarch  who  has  been 
charged  with  the  murder  of  his  son.  Leovogild,  a  Visigothic  king  of 
the  sixth  century,  having  taken  prisoner  his  rebel  son,  threw  him  into 
a  dungeon,  where  he  was  secretly  put  to  death.  The  king  was  an 
Arian,  while  the  young  prince  was  a  Catholic,  and  might  have  saved 
his  life  if  he  had  been  content  to  abjure  his  religion.  By  the  Church 
of  Rome,  therefore,  he  was  regarded  as  a  martyr ;  and  it  is  a  curious 
circumstance  that  it  was  Philip  the  Second  who  procured  the  canoni- 
zation of  the  slaughtered  Hermenegild  from  Pope  Sixtus  the  Fifth. — 
For  the  story,  taken  from  that  voluminous  compilation  of  Florez,  "La 


French  minister,  Sebastien  de  I'Aubespine,  who,  writing  to  Catherine 
de  Mcdicis  in  January,  1562,  relates  his  endeavors  to  obtain  the  release 
of  the  queen's  apothecary,  imprisoned  by  the  Inquisition.  "  The  only 
answer  I  could  get  from  his  majesty,"  he  writes,  "  was,  that  if  it  were 
his  own  son,  and  he  had  sinned  in  this  particular,  he  would  put  him  to 
death."    Gachard,  Don  Carlos  el  Philippe  II.,  torn.  i.  p.  57. — Ed.] 


QUARREL   IN  THE  PALACE.  537 

While  the  prince  lay  in  the  agonies  of  death,  scarcely 
an  hour  before  he  breathed  his  last,  a  scene  of  a  very 
different  nature  w:is  passing  in  an  adjoining  gallery  of 
the  palace.  A  quarrel  arose  there  between  two  court- 
iers,— one  of  them  a  young, cavalier,  Don  Antonio  de 
Leyva,  the  other  Don  Diego  de  Mendoza,  a  nobleman 
who  had  formerly  filled  with  great  distinction  the  post 
of  ambassador  at  Rome.  The  dispute  arose  respecting 
some  coplas,  of  which  Mendoza  claimed  to  be  the 
author.  Though  at  this  time  near  sixty  years  old,  the 
fiery  temperament  of  youth  had  not  been  cooled  by 
age.  Enraged  at  what  he  conceived  an  insult  on  the 
part  of  his  companion,  he  drew  his  dagger.  The  other 
as  promptly  unsheathed  his  sword.  Thrusts  were  ex- 
changed between  the  parties ;  and  the  noise  of  the 
fracas  at  length  reached  the  ears  of  Philip  himself. 
Indignant  at  the  outrage  thus  perpetrated  within  the 
walls  of  the  palace  and  at  such  an  hour,  he  ordered  his 
guards  instantly  to  arrest  the  offenders.  But  the  com- 
batants, brought  to  their  senses,  had  succeeded  in 
making  their  escape,  and  taken  refuge  in  a  neighboring 
church.  Philip  was  too  much  incensed  to  respect  this 
asylum ;  and  an  alcalde,  by  his  command,  entered  the 
church  at  midnight  and  dragged  the  offenders  from  tlie 
sanctuary.     Leyva  was  put  in  irons,  and  lodged  in  the 

Espana  sagrada,"  I  am  indebted  to  Milman's  History  of  Latin  Chris- 
tianity (London,  1854),  (vol.  i.  p.  446),  one  of  the  most  remarlcable 
works  of  the  present  age,  in  which  the  author  reviews,  with  curious 
erudition  and  in  a  profoundly  philosophical  spirit,  the  various  changes 
that-have  taken  place  in  the  Roman  hierarchy;  and  while  he  fully  ex- 
poses the  manifold  errors  and  corruptions  of  the  system,  he  shows 
throughout  that  enlightened  charity  which  is  the  most  precious  of 
Christian  graces,  as  unhappily  it  is  the  rarest. 
X* 


538  DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 

fortress  of  Madrid ;  while  his  rival  was  sent  to  the 
tower  of  Simancas.  "It  is  thought  they  will  pay  for 
this  outrage  with  their  lives,"  writes  the  Tuscan  minis- 
ter, Nobili.  "The  king,"  he  adds,  "has  even  a  mind 
to  cashier  his  guard  for  allowing  them  to  escape." 
Philip,  however,  confined  the  punishment  of  the  nobles 
to  banishment  from  court ;  ^°  and  the  old  courtier,  Men- 
doza,  profited  by  his  exile  to  give  to  the  world  those 
remarkable  compositions,  both  in  history  and  romance, 
that  form  an  epoch  in  the  national  literature.* 

A  few  days  before  his  death,  Carlos  is  said  to  have 
made  a  will,  in  which,  after  imploring  his  father's  par- 
don and  blessing,  he  commended  his  servants  to  his 
care,  gave  away  a  few  jewels  to  two  or  three  friends, 
and  disposed  of  the  rest  of  his  property  in  behalf  of 
sundry  churches  and  monasteries.''  Agreeably  to  his 
wish,  his  body  was  wrapped  in  a  Franciscan  robe,  and 
was  soon  afterwards  laid  in  a  coffin  covered  with  black 
velvet  and  rich  brocade.  At  seven  o'clock  that  same 
evening,  the  remains  of  Carlos  were  borne  from  the 
chamber  where  he  died,  to  their  place  of  interment.'^ 

The  coffin  was  supported  on  the  shoulders  of  the 

70  Lettera  di  Nobili,  Luglio  30,  1568,  MS. 

71  I  have  before  me  another  will  made  by  Don  Carlos  in  1564,  in 
Alcald  de  Henares,  the  original  of  which  is  still  extant  in  the  Archives 
of  Simancas.  In  one  item  of  this  document  he  bequeaths  five  thou- 
sand ducats  to  Don  Martin  de  Cordova  for  his  gallant  defence  of 
Mazarquivir. 

72  Lettera  del  Nunzio,  Luglio  28,  1568,  MS. — Quintana,  Historia 
de  Madrid,  fol.  369. 

*  [His  History  of  the  War  of  Granada  was  composed  during  his 
exile,  but  the  W(jrk  by  which  Mendoza  is  best  known,  Lazarillo  de 
T6rmes,  had  been  published  in  1553,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been 
written  while  the  author  was  a  student  at  Salamanca. — Ed.] 


HIS   OBSEQUIES.  535 

prince  of  Eboli,  the  dukes  of  Infantado  and  Rio  Scco, 
and  other  principal  grandees.  In  tlie  court-yard  of  tlie 
palace  was  a  large  gathering  of  the  members  of  the 
religious  fraternities,  dignitaries  of  the  church,  foreign 
ambassadors,  nobles  and  cavaliers  about  the  court,  and 
officers  of  the  royal  household.  There  were  there  also 
the  late  attendants  of  Carlos, — to  some  of  whom  he 
had  borne  little  love, — who,  after  watching  him  through 
his  captivity,  were  now  come  to  conduct  him  to  his 
final  resting-place.  Before  moving,  some  wrangling 
took  place  among  the  parties  on  the  question  of  prece- 
dence. Such  a  spirit  might  well  have  been  rebuked  by 
the  solemn  character  of  the  business  they  were  engaged 
in,  which  might  have  reminded  them  that  in  the  grave, 
at  least, .there  are  no  distinctions.  But  the  perilous 
question  was  happily  settled  by  Philip  himself,  who, 
from  an  open  window  of  the  palace,  looked  down  on 
the  scene,  and,  with  his  usual  composure,  gave  direc- 
tions for  forming  the  procession."  The  king  did  not 
accompany  it.  Slowly  it  defiled  through  the  crowded 
streets,  where  the  people  gave  audible  utterance  to  their 
grief,  as  they  gazed  on  the  funeral  pomp,  and  their 
eyes  fell  on  the  bier  of  the  prince  who,  they  had  fondly 
hoped,  would  one  day  sway  the  sceptre  of  Castile,  and 
whose  errors,  great  as  they  were,  were  all  forgotten  in 
his  unparalleled  misfortunes.'^ 

73  "  Partieron  con  el  cuerpo,  aviendo  el  Rey  con  la  entereza  de 
aniino  que  mantuvo  sienpre,  conpuesto  desde  una  ventana  las  dife- 
rencias  de  los  Consejos  disposiendo  la  precedencia,  cesando  assi  la 
competencia."     Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo,  lib.  viii.  cap.  5. 

74  The  particulars  of  the  ceremony  are  given  by  the  Nunzio,  Let- 
tera  di  28  di  Luglio,  MS. — See  also  Quintana,  Historia  de  Madrid, 
fol.  369. 


540  DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 

The  procession  moved  forward  to  the  convent  of  San 
Domingo  Real,  where  Carlos  had  desired  that  his  ashes 
might  be  laid.  The  burial-service  was  there  performed, 
with  great  solemnity,  in  presence  of  the  vast  multitude. 
But,  whether  it  was  that  Philip  distrusted  the  prudence 
of  the  preachers,  or  feared  some  audacious  criticism  on 
his  conduct,  no  discourse  was  allowed  to  be  delivered 
from  the  pulpit.  For  nine  days  religious  services  were 
performed  in  honor  of  the  deceased ;  and  the  office  for 
the  dead  continued  to  be  read,  morning  and  evening, 
before  an  audience  among  whom  were  the  great  nobles 
and  the  officers  of  state,  clad  in  full  mourning.  The 
queen  and  the  princess  Joanna  might  be  seen,  on  these 
occasions,  mingling  their  tears  with  the  few  who  cher- 
ished the  memory  of  Carlos.  A  niche  was  excavated 
in  the  wall  of  the  church,  within  the  choir,  in  which 
the  prince's  remains  were  deposited.  But  they  did 
not  rest  there  long.  In  1573  they  were  removed,  by 
Philip's  orders,  to  the  Escorial ;  and  in  its  gloomy 
chambers  they  were  left  to  mingle  with  the  kindred 
dust  of  the  royal  line  of  Austria. ^^ 

7S  Pinelo,  Anales  de  Madrid,  MS. — Quintana,  Historia  de  Madrid, 
fol.  369. — Lettera  del  Nunzio,  Luglio  28,  1568,  MS. — Cabrera,  Filipe 
Segundo,  lib.  viii.  cap.  5.* 


*  [Among  other  rumors  in  regard  to  the  prince's  death  was  one 
that  he  had  been  beheaded.  It  is  even  asserted  in  the  Memoirs  of 
Saint-Simon  that  the  body  lay  in  the  coffin  with  the  head  separated 
from  it  and  placed  between  the  legs.  This,  at  least,  seems  to  be  dis- 
proved by  a  manuscript  which  came  into  Prescott's  possession  after 
the  first  publication  of  the  present  volume,  and  which  he  transmitted 
to  M.  Gachard,  by  whom  it  has  been  printed.  It  is  dated  at  the 
Escorial,  August  2ct,  1795,  and  bears  no  signature,  but  is  conjectured 
by  M.  Gachard  to  have  been  written  by  a  person  holding  some  post 


HIS   OBSEQUIES.  541 

Philip  wrote  to  Zufiiga,  his  ambassador  in  Rome,  to 
intimate  his  wish  that  no  funeral  honors  should  be  paid 
there  to  the  memory  of  Carlos,  that  no  mourning 
should  be  worn,  and  that  his  holiness  would  not  feel 
under  the  necessity  of  sending  him  letters  of  condo- 
lence.'* Zufiiga  did  his  best.  But  he  could  not  prevent 
the  obsequies  from  being  celebrated  with  the  lugubrious 

7*  Carta  del  Rey  k  Zufiiga,  Agosto  27,  1568,  MS. 


at  the  Spanish  court.  The  writer  states  that  he  had  seen  the  body  of 
Carlos,  which  was  entire  and  showed  only  such  changes  as  the  length 
of  time  which  had  elapsed  since  his  death  would  naturally  have  pro- 
duced. But  a  better-authenticated  account  of  the  condition  and 
appearance  of  the  body  in  1812,  when  it  was  exhumed  by  order  of 
Colonel  Bory  de  Saint-Vincent,  an  officer  on  the  staff  of  Marshal 
Soult,  is  also  cited  by  M.  Gachard.  It  was  written  by  Colonel  Bory 
himself,  and  originally  printed  by  the  Baron  de  Reiffenberg  in  his 
edition  of  Vandervynckt's  Histoire  des  Troubles  des  Pays-Bas.  The 
coffin  was  found  in  its  proper  position  relatively  to  those  of  the  other 
members  of  the  family,  ranged  in  order  of  date ;  but  it  was  so  much 
heavier  than  any  of  the  rest  that  it  could  not  be  entirely  lifted  out  of 
the  place  of  deposit.  It  was  supported,  however,  and  the  lid,  having 
evidently  been  removed  on  a  former  occasion  and  clumsily  replaced, 
was  easily  detached.  "  Instead  of  a  fine  mummy,"  continues  the 
writer,  "  habited  like  those  we  had  just  seen,  we  found  compact  lime, 
the  uneven  surface  of  which  was  hard  and  pebbly.  This  lime  had 
been  removed  in  some  places,  as  if  to  seek  traces  of  the  body,  which 
had  no  doubt  been  covered  with  it  in  order  to  prevent  recognition. 
Some  parts  had  in  fact  been  laid  bare.  On  tearing  off  other  pieces 
of  this  substance,  we  found  bones  and  strips  of  skin  or  flesh  reduced 
to  the  consistence  of  old  rags."  The  existence  of  the  skull  was  also 
verified,  with  much  of  the  hair  well  preserved,  though  reddish  and 
brittle,  but  with  no  remains  of  the  integuments  either  on  the  frontal 
or  parietal  bones,  which  were  both  laid  bare.  An  attempt  was  made 
to  discover  if  the  vertebral  column,  which  alone  could  be  supposed 
to  have  escaped  corrosion,  were  intact ;  but  it  was  interrupted  by  the 
arrival  of  an  orderly  to  announce  that  the  army  was  in  motion. — Ed.] 
Philip.— Vol..  IT.  46 


542  DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 

pomp  suited  to  the  rank  of  the  departed.  A  catafalque 
was  raised  in  the  cliurch  of  Saint  James ;  the  services 
were  performed  in  presence  of  the  ambassador  and 
his  attendants,  who  were  dressed  in  the  deepest  black  ; 
and  twenty-one  cardinals,  one  of  whom  was  Granvelle, 
assisted  at  the  solemn  ceremonies."  But  no  funeral 
panegyric  was  pronounced,  and  no  monumental  inscrip- 
tion recorded  the  imaginary  virtues  of  the  deceased.'' 
Soon  after  the  prince's  death,  Philip  retired  to  the 
monastery  of  St.  Jerome,  in  whose  cloistered  recesses 
he  remained  some  time  longer  secreted  from  the  eyes 
of  his  subjects.  "He  feels  his  loss  like  a  father," 
writes  the  papal  nuncio,  "but  he  bears  it  with  the 
patience  of  a  Christian." '^  jje  caused  despatches  to 
be  sent  to  foreign  courts,  to  acquaint  them  with  his 
late  bereavement.  In  his  letter  to  the  duke  of  Alva 
he  indulges  in  a  fuller  expression  of  his  personal  feel- 
ings. "You  may  conceive,"  he  says,  "in  what  pain 
and  heaviness  I  find  myself,  now  that  it  has  pleased 
God  to  take  my  dear  son,  the  prince,  to  himself.  He 
died  in  a  Christian  manner,  after  having,  three  days 
before,  received  the  sacrament,  and  exhibited  repent- 

77  "  Digo  la  missa  el  Cardenal  Tarragona,  asistiendo  d  las  honras 
21  cardenales  ademas  de  los  obispos  y  arzobispos."  Aviso  de  un 
Italiano  pldtico  y  familiar  de  Ruy  Gomez  de  Silva,  MS. 

78  "  Oracion  funebre,"  writes  the  follower  of  Ruy  Gomez,  "  no  la 
hiibo,  pero  yo  hizo  estos  epitaphios  y  versos  por  mi  consolacion." 
Ibid. — Whatever  "consolation"  the  Latin  doggerel  which  follows  in 
the  original  may  have  given  to  its  author,  it  would  have  too  little 
interest  for  the  reader  to  be  quoted  here. 

79  "  II  R6  como  padre  ha  scntito  molto,  ma  come  christiano  la 
comporta  con  quella  patienza  con  che  dovemo  ricevere  le  tribula- 
tioni  che  ci  manda  Nostro  Signore  Die."  Lettera  del  Nunzio,  Lu- 
glio  24,  1568,  MS. 


HIS   OBSEQUIES.  543 

ance  and  contrition, — all  which  serves  to  console  me 
under  this  affliction.  For  I  hope  that  God  has  called 
him  to  himself,  that  he  may  be  with  him  evermore; 
and  that  he  will  grant  me  his  grace,  that  I  may  endure 
this  calamity  with  a  Christian  heart  and  patience."  ^^ 

Thus,  in  the  morning  of  life,  at  little  more  than 
twenty-three  years  of  age,  perished  Carlos,  prince  of 
Asturias.  No  one  of  his  time  came  into  the  world 
under  so  brilliant  auspices ;  for  he  was  heir  to  the 
noblest  empire  in  Christendom ;  and  the  Spaniards,  as 
they  discerned  in  his  childhood  some  of  the  germs  of 
future  greatness  in  his  character,  looked  confidently 
forward  to  the  day  when  he  should  rival  the  glory  of 
his  grandfather,  Charles  the  Fifth.  But  he  was  born 
under  an  evil  star,  which  counteracted  all  the  gifts  of 
fortune  and  turned  them  into  a  curse.  His  naturally 
wild  and  headstrong  temper  was  exasperated  by  disease, 
and,  when  encountered  by  the  distrust  and  alienation 
of  him  who  had  the  control  of  his  destiny,  was  exalted 
into  a  state  of  frenzy,  that  furnishes  the  best  apology 
for  his  extravagances,  and  vindicates  the  necessity  of 
some  measures,  on  the  part  of  his  father,  to  restrain 
fhem.  Yet  can  those  who  reject  the  imputation  of 
murder  acquit  that  father  of  inexorable  rigor  towards 
his  child  in  the  measures  which  he  employed,  or  of 
the  dreadful  responsibility  which  attaches  to  the  con- 
sequences of  them  ?* 

^°  Raumer  has  given  an  extract  from  this  letter,  Sixteenth  and  Sev- 
enteenth Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  149. 


*  [M.  Gachard,  while  even  more  emphatic  than  Prescott  in  his  con- 
demnation of  the  cruel  treatment  and  "  moral  tortures"  by  which  he 


544  DEATH  OF  DON  CARLOS. 

considers  Don  Carlos  to  have  been  driven  to  desperation  and  his  end 
precipitated,  is,  on  the  other  hand,  far  more  decided  in  rejecting  all 
the  accounts  of  his  having  perished  by  violence.  He  dismisses  them, 
indeed,  with  the  single  remark  that  "  they  destroy  each  other."  But 
the  inconsistency  of  several  stories  in  regard  to  details  is  no  con- 
vincing proof  that  they  do  not  all  contain  the  essential  truth,  or  that 
one  of  them  may  not  be  true  in  every  particular.  There  were  con- 
tradictory reports  in  regard  to  the  death  of  Montigny,  leading  some 
inquirers  to  discredit  altogether  the  story  of  his  assassination  until  the 
fact  was  established  by  documentary  proof.  The  popular  belief  seems 
to  have  been  grounded  simply  on  the  suspicious  circumstances  of  the 
case.  In  the  present  case  the  grounds  for  a  like  belief  are  far  stronger 
and  more  abundant.  The  circumstances  were,  indeed,  such  as  to 
raise  a  strong  presumption  against  Philip,  and  throw  upon  him  the 
burden  of  proof, — not,  indeed,  in  a  court  of  law,  could  he  ha:ve  been 
brought  before  such  a  tribunal,  but  before  the  bar  of  history,  where 
he  now  stands,  (fie  had  deprived  Carlos  of  his  liberty,  immured  him 
in  the  strictest  confinement,  surrounded  him  with  his  own  creatures 
bound  to  execute  his  will  and  sworn  to  secrecy  in  regard  to  all  that 
might  take  place,  forbidden  the  access  of  all  other  persons,  including 
the  nearest  of  kin  and  the  highest  in  rank,  the  officials  of  the  kingdom 
and  the  representatives  of  foreign  powers,  and  thus  prevented  all  pub- 
licity or  any  relation  of  the  facts  by  unsuspected  witnesses.  Nor  does 
the  presumption  against  him  stop  here  :  on  the  contrary,  it  is  strength- 
ened at  every  step  of  the  inquiry.  He  had  announced  that  his  object 
was  one  not  to  be  gained  by  temporary  expedients,  and  had  made 
known  his  intention  that  Carlos  was  not  to  succeed  him  on  the  throne^ 
He  had  intimated  that  his  son  was  by  his  mental  and  moral  defe(;ts 
unfitted  to  rule  ;  but  no  council  of  physicians  was  summoned,  and  no 
investigation  was  made  of  which  the  results  were  ever  published.  To 
have  deprived  Carlos  of  the  succession  without  the  fullest  proofs  of 
his  incapacity  would  have  been  all  but  impossible ;  and  even  could 
the  legal  impediments  have  been  removed  and  the  assent  of  the  cortes 
obtained,  this  would  only  have  hadthe  effect  of  dividing  the  nation 
and  sowing  the  seeds  of  civil  war.  vThere  was,  therefore,  no  sure  way 
in  which  Philip  could  deprive  his  son  of  his  inheritance  except  by 
depriving  him  of  his  lifgT'  That  the  obstacle  thus  presented  would 
not  have  seemed  insurmountable  in  his  eyes,  we  know  both  from  his 
own  words  and  from  the  general  tenor  of  his  acts.  And  with  Philip 
were  leagued,  as  his  chief  counsellors  and  his  special  confidants  in  this 


EVIDENCE  AGAINST  Fill  LIP.  545 

affair,  Ruy  Gomez  and  Espinosa,  to  both  of  whom  Carlos  had  shown 
himself  inimical,  and  who,  as  was  noted  by  all  observers  at  the  time, 
had  cause  to  tremble  for  their  own  safety  if  he  were  suffered  to  live 
and  reign. 

The  question  remains  whether  the  presumption  thus  raised  is  over- 
come by  the  crediljility  of  the  relations  put  forth  at  the  time  in  regard 
to  the  death  of  Carlos.  These  relations  are  twofold.  The  official 
account,  addressed  to  the  municipalities,  recites  briefly  and  generally 
the  prince's  excesses  in  eating  and  in  the  use  of  ice  and  iced  water, 
followed  by  long  abstinence  from  food  and  consequent  reduction  of 
the  system,  as  the  causes  of  his  death.  This  account  is  considered 
by  .M.  Gachard  as  on  many  grounds  unworthy  of  credence.  But 
surely  the  fact  that  the  story  sent  forth  by  Philip  bears  the  marks 
of  falsehood  warrants  the  inference  that  he  had  strong  motives  for 
concealing  the  truth.  M.  Gachard,  however,  while  rejecting  this 
story,  accepts  as  probable  and  sufficiently  authenticated  that  which  is 
found  in  the  letters  of  several  of  the  foreign  ministers,  though  it  is 
neither  dissimilar  in  character  nor  better  supported  by  evidence.  It 
is  given  by  some  of  the  writers  as  only  one  of  many  rumors,  and  by 
the  others  without  any  mention  of  their  authority,  but  impliedly  as 
the  account  allowed  to  be  current  at  the  court.  It  attributes  the  death 
of  Carlos  to  his  having  eaten  a  huge  pasty  of  partridges,  so  highly 
seasmied  as  to  prodtice  an  iyttolerable  thirst,  which  he  sought  to  relieve 
by  enormous  draughts  of  water,  the  result  being  a  violent  seizure  of 
vomitings  and  discharges  from  the  bowels,  ending  in  a  debility  of  the 
stomach  which  rendered  all  remedies  unavailing.  Any  thing  more 
suspicious  than  this  story  it  would  be  difficult  to  conceive.  It  has  all 
the  air  of  having  been  invented  to  account  for  symptoms  and  appear- 
ances which  would  have  pointed  at  once  to  the  administration  of 
poison, — the  mode  of  death  alleged  by  Antonio  Perez,  whose  testi- 
mony has  been  too  lightly  discredited,  as  well  as  by  De  Thou  and 
Llorente.  Even  if  the  facts  be  accepted,  the  only  construction  to 
which  they  are  subject  is  one  that  makes  no  essential  difference  in 
regard  to  the  question  at  issue.  If  those  who,  when  Carlos  was  at 
liberty,  had  restricted  his  diet  to  a  measured  quantity  of  the  simplest 
food,  placed  before  him  when  a  prisoner  the  dish  described  and  allowed 
him  to  devour  it,  their  intention  cannot  be  doubtful.  If  the  account 
by  Colonel  Bory  de  Saint-Vincent  of  the  disinterment  of  the  body 
and  its  condition  be  accepted  as  trustworthy,  the  evidence  against 
Philip  will  be  complete. — Ed.] 

46* 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

DEATH   OF    ISABELLA. 

Queen  Isabella. — Her  Relations  with  Carlos. — Her  Illness  and  Death. 
— Her  Character.* 

1568. 

Three  months  had  not  elapsed  after  the  young  and 
beautiful~queai  of  Philip  the  Second  had  wept  over  the 
fate  of  her  unfortunate  step-son,  when  she  was  herself 
called  upon  to  follow  him  to  the  tomb.  The  occur- 
rence of  these  sad  events  so  near  together,  and  the  re- 
lations of  the  parties,  who  had  once  been  designed  for 
each  other,  suggested  the  idea  that  a  criminal  passion 
subsisted  between  them,  and  that,  after  her  lover's 
death,  Isabella  was  herself  sacrificed  to  the  jealousy  of 
a  vindictive  husband. 

One  will  in  vain  look  for  this  tale  of  horror  in  the 
native  historians  of  Castile.  Nor  does  any  historian 
of  that  day,  native  or  foreign,  whom  I  have  consulted, 
in  noticing  the  rumors  of  the  time,  cast  a  reproach  on 
the  fair  fame  of  Isabella ;  though  more  than  one  must 
be  allowed  to  intimate  the  existence  of  the  prince's 
passion  for  his  step-mother.'     Brantome  tells  us  that 

'  Besides  Brantome  and  De  Thou,  elsewhere  noticed  in  this  con- 
nection, another  writer  of  that  age,  Pierre  Matthieu,  the  royal  his- 
toriographer of  France,  may  be  thought  to  insinuate  something  of 
the  kind,  when  he  tells  us  that  "  the  circumstance  of  Isabella  so  soon 
(546) 


ISABELLA- S   RELATIONS  WITH  CARLOS.      547 

when  Carlos  first  saw  the  queen  "  he  was  so  captivated 
by  her  charms  that  he  conceived  from  that  time  a  mor- 
tal spite  against  his  father,  whom  he  often  reproached 
for  the  great  wrong  he  had  done  him  in  ravishing 
from  him  this  fair  prize."  *'And  this,"  adds  the 
writer,  ''was  said  in  part  to  have  been  the  cause  of  the 
prince's  death;  for  he  could  not  help  loving  the  queen 
at  the  bottom  of  his  soul,  as  well  as  honoring  and  rev- 
erencing one  who  was  so  truly  amiable  and  deserving 
of  love."  =*  He  afterwards  gives  us  to  understand  that 
many  rumors  were  afloat  in  regard  to  the  manner  of 
the  queen's  death,  and  tells  a  story,  not  very  probable, 
of  a  Jesuit  who  was  banished  to  the  farthest  Indies 
for  denouncing,  in  his  pulpit,  the  wickedness  of  those 
who  could  destroy  so  innocent  a  creature. ^ 

A  graver  authority,  the  prince  of  Orange,  in  his 
public  vindication  of  his  own  conduct,  openly  charges 
Philip  with  the  murder  of  both  his  son  and  his  wife. 
It  is  to  be  noticed,  however,  that  he  nowhere  intimates 

following  Carlos  to  the  tomb  had  suggested  very  different  grounds 
from  those  he  had  already  given  as  the  cause  of  his  death."  (Breve 
Compendio  de  la  Vida  privada  del  Rey  Felipe  Segundo,  MS.)  But 
the  French  writer's  account  of  Philip  is  nearly  as  apocryphal  as  the 
historical  romance  of  St.  Real,  who,  in  all  that  relates  to  Carlos  in 
particular,  will  be  found  largely  indebted  to  the  hvely  imagination  of 
his  predecessor. 

*"Aussi  dit  on  que  cela  fut  cause  de  sa  mort  en  partie,  avec 
d'autres  subjects  que  je  ne  dirai  point  \  ceste  heure ;  car  il  ne  se  pou- 
voit  garder  de  I'aimer  dans  son  ame,  I'honorer  et  reverer,  tant  il  la 
trouvoit  aymable  et  agreable  \  ses  yeux,  comme  certes  elle  I'estoit  en 
tout."     Brantome,  CEuvres,  torn.  v.  p.  128. 

3  "  Luy  eschappa  de  dire  que  c'avoit  este  fait  fort  meschamment  de 
Tavoir  fait  mourir  et  si  innocentement,  dont  il  fut  banny  jusques  au 
plus  profond  des  Indes  d'Espagne.  Cela  est  tres  que  vray,  k  ce  que 
I'on  dit."     Ibid.,  p.  132. 


548  DEATH  OF  ISABELLA. 

that  either  of  the  parties  was  in  love  with  the  other ; 
and  he  refers  the  queen's  death  to  Philip's  desire  to 
open  the  way  to  a  marriage  with  the  Princess  Anne  of 
Austria/  Yet  these  two  authorities  are  the  only  ones 
of  that  day,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  who  have  given 
countenance  to  these  startling  rumors.  Both  were  for- 
eigners, far  removed  from  the  scene  of  action :  one  of 
them  a  light,  garrulous  Frenchman,  whose  amusing 
pages,  teeming  with  the  idle  gossip  of  the  court,  are 
often  little  better  than  a  Chronique  Scandaleuse ;  the 
other,  the  mortal  enemy  of  Philip,  whose  character — ■ 
as  the  best  means  of  defending  his  own — he  was  assail- 
ing with  the  darkest  imputations. 

"^  No  authority,  however,  beyond  that  of  vulgar  rumor, 
was  required  by  the  unscrupulous  writers  of  a  later 
time,  who  discerned  the  capabilities  of  a  story  like  that 
of  Carlos  and  Isabella,  in  the  situations  of  romantic 
interest  which  it  would  open  to  the  reader.    Improving 

4  Apologie,  ap.  Dumont,  Corps  diplomatique,  torn.  v.  par.  i,  p. 
389. — Strada,  while  he  notices  the  common  rumors  respecting  Carlos 
and  Isabella,  dismisses  them  as  wholly  unworthy  of  credit :  "  Mihi, 
super  id  quod  incomperta  sunt,  etiam  veris  dissimilia  videntur."  De 
Bello  Belgico,  torn.  i.  p.  379.* 


*  [A  brief  citation  of  facts  and  dates  will  suffice  to  refute  the  theory 
ri-  put  forth  in  the  Apology.    In  letters  written  on  the  19th  of  May,  Phihp 

definitively  renounced  the  project  of  a  marriage  between  Carlos  and 
the  archduchess  Anne,  and  recommended  that  she  should  accept  an 
offer  which  had  been  made  by  the  French  king.  Maximilian  accord- 
ingly empowered  his  brother,  the  archduke  Charles,  whom  he  was 
sending  on  a  mission  to  Madrid,  to  conclude  the  alliance  with  Charles 
IX.  Before  he  could  set  out,  intelligence  arrived  of  the  death  of 
Carlos,  followed,  while  he  was  on  his  way,  by  that  of  the  queen's 
decease.  He  weis  then  instructed  to  offer  his  sister's  hand  to  Philip, 
who  cannot,  therefore,  have  expected  the  proposal,  though  he  readily 
accepted  it. — Eu.] 


HER  RELATIONS  WITH  CARLOS. 


549 


on  this  hint,  they  have  filled  in  the  outlines  of  the  pic- 
ture with  the  touches  of  their  own  fancy,  until  the  in- 
terest thus  given  to  this  tale  of  love  and  woe  has  made 
it  as  widely  known  as  any  of  the  classic  myths  of  early 
Grecian  history,  s 

Fortunately,  we  have  the  power,  in  this  case,  of  es- 
tablishing the  truth  from  unsuspicious  evidence, — that 
of  Isabella's  own  countrymen,  whose  residence  at  the 
court  of  Madrid  furnished  them  with  ample  means  of 
personal  observation.  Isabella's  mother,  the  famous 
Catherine  de  Medicis,  associated  with  so  much  that  is 
terrible  in  our  imaginations,  had  at  least  the  merit  of 
watching  over  her  daughter's  interests  with  the  most 
affectionate  solicitude.  This  did  not  diminish  when, 
at  the  age  of  fifteen,  Elizabeth  of  France  left  her  own 
land  and  ascended  the  throne  of  Spain.  Catherine 
kept  up  a  constant  correspondence  with  her  daughter, 
sometimes  sending  her  instructions  as  to  her  conduct, 
at  other  times  medical  prescriptions  in  regard  to  her 
health.  She  was  careful  also  to  obtain  information  re- 
specting Isabella's  mode  of  life  from  the  French  am- 
bassadors at  the  court  of  Castile ;  and  we  may  be  quite 

s  At  the  head  of  these  writers  must  undoubtedly  be  placed  the 
Abbe  St.  Real,  with  whose  romantic  history  of  Don  Carlos  I  am 
only  acquainted  in  the  Castilian  translation,  entitled  "  Verdadera 
Historia  de  la  Vida  y  Muerte  del  Principe  Don  Carlos."  Yet,  ro- 
mance as  it  is,  more  than  one  grave  historian  has  not  disdained  to 
transplant  its  flowers  of  fiction  into  his  own  barren  pages.  It  is  edi- 
fying to  see  the  manner  in  which  Leti,  who  stands  not  a  little  in- 
debted to  St.  Real,  after  stating  the  scandalous  rumors  in  regard  to 
Carlos  and  Isabella,  concludes  by  declaring,  "  Ma  come  io  scrivo  his- 
toria, e  non  romanzo,  non  posso  affirmar  nulla  di  certo,  perche  nulla 
di  certo  h6  possuto  raccore."  Leti,  Vita  di  Filippo  II.,  torn.  i.  p. 
560. 


550 


DEATH  OF  ISABELLA. 


sure  that  these  loyal  subjects  would  have  been  quick  to 
report  any  injurious  treatment  of  the  queen  by  her 
husband. 

A  candid  perusal  of  their  despatches  dispels  all  mys- 
tery,— or,  rather,  proves  there  never  was  any  cause  for 
mystery.     The  sallow,  sickly  boy  of  fourteen — for  Car- 
los was  no  older  at  the  time  of  Isabella's  marriage — was 
possessed  of  too  few  personal  attractions  to  make  it 
probable  that  he  could  have  touched  the  heart  of  his 
/  beautiful  step-mother,  had  she  been  lightly  disposed. 
I   But  her  intercourse  with  him  from  the  first  seems  to 
i   have  been  such  as  naturally  arose  from  the  relations  of 
j  the  parties,  and  from  the  kindness  of  her  disposition, 
I  which  led  her  to  feel  a  sympathy  for  the  personal  in- 
/  firmities  and  misfortunes  of  Carlos.    Far  from  attempt- 
\  ing  to  disguise  her  feelings  in  this  matter,  she  displayed 
\  them  openly  in  her  correspondence  with  her  mother, 
\and  before  her  husband  and  the  world. 
I     Soon  after  Isabella's  arrival  at  Madrid,  we  find  a 
letter  from  the  bishop  of  Limoges  to  Charles  the  Ninth, 
her  brother,  informing  him  that  "his  sister,  on  enter- 
ing the  palace  of  Madrid,  gave  the  prince  so  gracious 
and  affectionate  a  reception  that  it  afforded  singular 
contentment  to  the  king,  and  yet  more  to  Carlos,  as 
appeared  by  his  frequent  visits  to  the  queen, — as  fre- 
quent as  the  etiquette  of  a  court  much  stiffer  than  that 
of  Paris  would  permit."^    Again,  writing  in  the  fol- 

*"  Monsieur  le  prince  d'Hespaigne  fort  extenue,  la  vint  saluer, 
qu'elle  receut  avec  telle  caresse  et  comportement,  que  si  le  p^re  et 
toute  la  compaignie  en  ont  receu  ung  singulier  contentement  ledit 
prince  I'a  encores  plus  grand,  comme  il  a  desmonstre  depuis  et  de- 
monstre  lorsqu'il  la  visite,  qui  ne  peut  cstre  souvent ;  car,  outre  que 
les  conversations  de  ce  pays  ne  sont  pas  si  fr^quentes  et  faciles  qu'en 


HER   RELATIONS    WITH  CARLOS. 


55f 


lowing  month,  the  bishop  speaks  of  the  queen  as  en- 
deavoring to  amuse  Carlos,  when  he  came  to  see  her 
in  the  evening,  with  such  innocent  games  and  pastimes 
as  might  cheer  the  spirits  of  the  young  prince,  who 
seemed  to  be  wasting  away  under  his  malady.^ 

The  next  year  we  have  a  letter  to  Catherine  de  Medi- 
cis  from  one  of  Isabella's  train,  who  had  accompanied 
her  from  France.  After  speaking  of  her  mistress  as 
sometimes  supping  in  the  garden  with  the  princess 
Joanna,  she  says  they  were  often  joined  there  by  "the 
prince,  who  loves  the  queen  singularly  well,  and,  as  I 
suspect,  would  have  had  no  objection  to  be  more  nearly, 
related  to  her."^  There  is  nothing  improbable  in  the 
supposition  that  Carlos,  grateful  for  kindness  to  which 
he  had  not  been  too  much  accustomed,  should,  as  he 

France,  sa  fi^vre  quarte  le  travaille  tellement,  que  de  jour  en  jour  il 
va  s'extenuant."  L'6veque  de  Limoges  au  Roi,  23  fevrier,  1559, 
Negociations  relatives  au  Regne  de  Fran9ois  II.,  p.  272. 

7  "  Ayant  ladite  dame  mis  toute  la  peine  qu'il  a  este  possible  \  luy 
donner,  aux  soirs,  quelque  plaisir  du  bail  et  autres  honnestes  passe- 
temps,  desquels  il  a  bon  besoin,  car  le  pauvre  prince  est  si  bas  et  ex- 
tenue,  il  va  d'heure  ^  heure  tant  affoiblissant,  que  les  plus  sages  de 
ceste  court  en  ont  bien  petite  esperance."  L'Eveque  de  Limoges  au 
Roi,  !«■■  mars,  1559,  Ibid.,  p.  291.* 

8  "  La  royne  et  la  princesse  la  visitent  bien  souvent,  et  sopent  en 
un  jardin  qui  est  aupres  de  la  meson,  et  le  prince  avec  elles,  qui  aime 
la  royne  singuli^rement,  de  fa9on  qu'il  ne  ce  peut  soler  de  an  dire 
bien.  jfe  croys  qu'il  voudroit  estre  davantage  son  parent."  Claude 
de  .  .  .  il  la  Reine  M^re,  aout,  1560,  Ibid.,  p.  460. 


*  [The  reports  that  Carlos  was  "wasting  away"  would,  for  obvious 
reasons,  be  very  agreeable  to  Catherine  de  Medicis  and  the  French 
court.  None  of  the  other  letters  of  this  period  contain  such  frequent 
and  hopeless  accounts  of  the  prince's  health  as  those  cif  the  French 
minister. — Ed.] 


552 


DEATH  OF  ISABELLA. 


grew  older,  have  yielded  to  the  influence  of  a  princess 
whose  sweet  disposition  and  engaging  manners  seem  to 
have  won  the  hearts  of  all  who  approached  her,  or  that 
feelings  of  resentment  should  have  mingled  with  his 
regret  as  he  thought  of  the  hard  fate  which  had  placed 
a  barrier  between  them.  It  is  possible,  too,  when  we 
consider  the  prince's  impetuous  temper,  that  the  French 
historian  De  Thou  may  have  had  good  authority  for 
asserting  that  Carlos,  >/' after  long  conversations  in  the 
queen's  apartment,  was  often  heard,  as  he  came  out,  to 
complain  loudly  of  his  father's  having  robbed  him  of 
her. ' '  5  ^ut  it  could  have  been  no  vulgar  passion  that 
he  felt  for  Isabella,  and  certainly  it  received  no  encour- 
agement from  her,  if,  as  Brantome  tells  us,  "  insolent 
and  audacious  as  he  was  in  his  intercourse  with  all  other 
women,  he  never  came  into  the  presence  of  his  step- 
mother without  such  a  feeling  of  reverence  as  seemed 
to  change  his  very  nature." 

Nor  is  there  the  least  evidence  that  the  admiration 
excited  by  the  queen,  whether  in  Carlos  or  in  the  cour- 
tiers, gave  any  uneasiness  to  Philip,  who  seems  to  have 
reposed  entire  confidence  in  her  discretion.  And 
while  we  find  Isabella  speaking  of  Philip  to  her  mother 
as  "so  good  a  husband,  and  rendering  her  so  happy  by 
his  attentions,  that  it  made  the  dullest  spot  in  the  world 
agreeable  to  her," '°  we  meet  with  a  letter  from  the 

9  "  On  entendit  aussi  tres-souvent  ce  jeune  Prince,  lorsqu'il  sortoit 
de  la  chambre  de  la  Reine  Elizabeth,  avec  qui  il  avoit  de  longs  et 
fr^quens  entretiens,  se  plaindre  et  marquer  sa  colore  et  son  indigna- 
tion, de  ce  que  son  pere  la  lui  avoit  enlevee."  De  Thou,  Histoire 
univcrselle,  torn.  v.  p.  434. 

10  "  Vous  dir^s-ge,  madame,  que  sy  se  n'estoit  la  bonne  compaignie 
oi  je  suis  en  se  lieu,  et  I'hcur  que  j'ai  de  voir  tous  les  jours  le  roy 


HER   RELATIONS  WITH  CARLOS. 


553 


French  minister,  Guibert,  saying  that  "  the  king  goes 
on  loving  the  queen  more  and  more,  and  that  her  in- 
fluence has  increased  threefold  within  the  last  three 
months.""  A  few  years  later,  in  1565,  St.  Sulpice, 
then  ambassador  in  Madrid,  writes  to  the  queen-mother 
in  emphatic  terms  of  the  affectionate  intercourse  that 
subsisted  between  Pliilip  and  his  consort.  "I  can 
assure  you,  madam,"  he  says,  "that  the  queen,  your 
daughter,  lives  in  the  greatest  content  in  the  world,  by 
reason  of  the  perfect  friendship  which  ever  draws  her 
more  closely  to  her  husband.  He  shows  her  the  most 
unreserved  confidence,  and  is  so  cordial  in  his  treat- 
ment of  her  as  to  leave  nothing  to  be  desired."  "  The 
writer  quotes  a  declaration  made  to  him  by  Philip,  that 
"  the  loss  of  his  consort  would  be  a  heavier  misfortune 
than  had  ever  yet  befallen  l«im."  '^ 

Nor  was  this  an  empty  profession  in  the  king,  as  he 
evinced  by  his  indulgence  of  Isabella's  tastes,* — even 
those  national  tastes  which  were  not  always  in  accord- 
ance with  the  more  rigid  rules  of  Castilian  etiquette. 

mon  seigneur,  je  trouverois  se  lieu  I'un  des  plus  facheux  du  monde. 
Mais  je  vous  assure,  madame,  que  j'ay  un  si  bon  mari  et  suis  si  heu- 
reuse  que,  quant  il  le  seroit  cent  fois  davantage,  je  ne  m'y  facherois 
point."  La  Reine  Catholique  h.  la  Reine  M^re,  Negociations  rela- 
tives au  R^gne  de  Fran9ois  II.,  p.  813. 

"  Raumer,  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  129. 

"  Ibid.,  p.  130.  »3  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


[*  Not,  however,  by  his  fidelity  to  his  marriage- vows.  Tlie  queen, 
according  to  the  Venetian  ministers  Tiepolo  and  Soranzo,  was  well 
aware  of  her  husband's  gallantries,  which  were  numerous,  but  she  had 
been  too  well  trained  by  Catherine  de  Medicis  to  utter  the  least  com- 
plaint. Her  only  endeavor,  we  are  told,  was  to  please  him  and  to  act 
in  all  things  conformably  to  his  will. — Ed.] 
Philip. — Vol.  II. — y  47 


554 


DEATH  OF  ISABELLA. 


To  show  the  freedom  with  which  she  lived,  1  may  per- 
haps be  excused  for  touching  on  a  few  particulars 
already  noticed  in  a  previous  chapter.  On  her  coming 
into  the  country,  she  was  greeted  with  balls  and  other 
festivities,  to  which  she  had  been  accustomed  in  the 
gay  capital  of  France.  Her  domestic  establishment 
was  on  a  scale  of  magnificence  suited  to  her  station ; 
and  the  old  courtier,  Brantome,  dwells  with  delight  on 
the  splendid  profusion  of  her  wardrobe  and  the  costly 
jewels  with  which  it  was  adorned.  When  she  went 
abroad,  she  dispensed  with  her  veil,  after  the  fashion 
of  her  own  country,  though  so  much  at  variance  with 
the  habits  of  the  Spanish  ladies.  Yet  it  made  her  a 
greater  favorite  with  the  people,  who  crowded  around 
her  wherever  she  appeared,  eager  to  catch  a  glimpse  of 
her  beautiful  features.  SHfe  brought  into  the  country  a 
troop  of  French  ladies  and  waiting-women,  some  of 
whom  remained  and  married  in  Castile.  Such  as  re- 
turned home  she  provided  with  liberal  dowries.  To 
persons  of  her  own  nation  she  was  ever  accessible, — • 
receiving  the  humblest  as  well  as  the  highest,  says  her 
biographer,  with  her  wonted  benignity.  With  them 
she  conversed  in  her  native  tongue.  But  in  the  course 
of  three  months  her  ready  wit  had  so  far  mastered  the 
Castilian  that  she  could  make  herself  understood  in 
that  language,  and  in  a  short  time  spoke  it  with  ele- 
gance, though  with  a  slight  foreign  accent,  not  un pleas- 
ing. Born  and  bred  among  a  people  so  different  from 
that  with  whom  her  lot  was  now  cast,  Isabella  seemed 
to  unite  in  her  own  person  the  good  qualities  of  each. 
The  easy  vivacity  of  the  French  character  was  so  hap- 
pily tempered  by  the  gravity  of  the  Spanish  as  to  give 


IIER   RELATIONS  WITH  CARLOS. 


555 


an  inexpressible  charm  to  her  manners.'''  Thus  riclily 
endowed  with  the  best  gifts  of  nature  and  of  fortune, 
it  is  no  wonder  that  Elizabeth  of  France  should  have 
been  the  delight  of  the  courtly  circle  over  which  she 
presided  and  of  which  she  was  the  greatest  ornament. 

Her  gentle  nature  must  have  been  much  disturbed  by 
witnessing  the  wild  capricious  temper  of  Carlos  and 
the  daily  increasing  estrangement  of  his  father.  Yet 
she  did  not  despair  of  reclaiming  him.  At  least,  we 
may  infer  so  from  the  eagerness  with  which  she  sec- 
onded her  mother  in  pressing  the  union  of  her  sister, 
Catherine  de  Medicis'  younger  daughter,  with  the 
prince.  "My  sister  is  of  so  excellent  a  disposition," 
the  queen  said  to  Ruy  Gomez,  "that  no  princess  in 
Christendom  would  be  more  apt  to  moderate  and 
accommodate  herself  to  mj^  step-son's  humors,  or  be 
better  suited  to  the  father,  as  well  as  the  son,  in  their 
relations  with  each  other. ' '  '^  But,  although  the  min- 
ister readily  adopted  the  queen's  views  in  the  matter, 
they  met  with  little  encouragement  from  Philip,  who  at 
that  time  seemed  more  inclined  to  a  connection  with 
the  house  of  Austria. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  seen  the  pain 
occasioned  to  Isabella  by  the  arrest  of  Carlos.  Although 
so  far  a  gainer  by  it  as  it  opened  to  her  own  posterity 
the  way  to  the  succession,  she  wept,  as  the  ambassador 
Fourquevaulx  tells  us,  for  two  days,  over  the  misfortune 

14  "  Ceste  taille,  elle  I'accompagnoit  d'un  port,  d'une  majeste,  d'un 
geste,  d'un  marcher  et  d'une  grace  entremeslee  de  I'espagnole  et  de 
la  fran9oise  en  gravite  et  en  douceur."  See  Brant&me  (CEuvres,  torn. 
V.  p.  129),  whose  loyal  pencil  has  traced  the  lineaments  of  Isabella  as 
given  in  the  text. 

''S  Raumer,  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  131. 


556  DEATH  OF  ISABELLA. 

of  her  step-son,  until  forbidden  by  Philip  to  weep  any 
longer.'*  During  his  confinement,  as  we  have  seen,  she 
was  not  permitted  to  visit  him, — not  even  to  soften  the 
bitterness  of  his  dying  hour.  And  how  much  her 
presence  would  have  soothed  him  at  such  a  time  may 
be  inferred  from  the  simple  memorandum  found  among 
his  papers,  in  which;^e  assigns  her  the  first  place  among 
his  friends,  as  having  been  ever  the  most  loving  to 
him. '7  ^The  same  affection,  however  we  may  define  it, 
which  he  had  borne  her  from  the  first,  he  retained  to 
the  last  hour  of  his  life.  All  that  was  now  granted  to 
Isabella  was  the  sad  consolation  of  joining  with  the 
princess  Joanna,  and  the  few  friends  who  still  cherished 
the  memory  of  Carlos,  in  celebrating  his  funeral  obse- 
quies. 

Not  long  after  that  event,  it  was  announced  that  the 
queen  was  pregnant;*  and  the  nation  fondly  hoped  that 

'*  Letter  of  Fourquevaulx,  February  8th,  1568,  ap.  Ibid.,  p.  139. f 
•7  "Gli  amici,  in  primo  loco  la  Regina,  ia  quale  diceva  che  gli  era 

amorevolissima,  Don  Giovanni  d'Austria  suo  carissimo  et  diletissimo 

zio,"  etc.     Lettera  del  Nunzio,  Marzo  2,  1568,  MS. 


*  [The  fact  had  been  known  by  the  court  long  previously.  The 
Tuscan  minister,  in  a  letter  of  March  30th,  says  it  was  feared  that 
her  grief  on  account  of  the  prince's  imprisonment  would  occasion  a 
miscarriage. — Ed.] 

f  [In  an  earlier  letter,  announcing  the  arrest  of  Carlos,  Fourque- 
vaul.x  writes  to  Catherine  de  Medicis,  "  The  queen  is  afflicted  at  it, 
and  weeps  from  love  of  both,  seeing  that  the  prince  also  loves  her 
marvellously."  A  note  of  the  same  date  (January  19th)  from  "  6liza- 
bet,"  as  she  subscribes  herself,  to  Fourquevaulx,  has  been  preserved, 
in  which  she  says  she  feels  the  misfortune  as  if  it  were  that  of  her  own 
son,  being  indebted  to  the  prince  for  his  friendsliip,  and  wishing  to 
serve  him  in  return.  "  Dicu  a  voulu  qu'il  est  declare  ce  qu'il  est,  k. 
mon  grand  regret."    The  king,  whose  pain  at  being  compelled  to  such 


HER  ILLNESS. 


557 


it  would  find  a  compensation  for  the  loss  of  its  rightful 
prince,  in  the  birth  of  a  new  heir  to  the  throne.  But 
this  hope  was  destined  soon  to  be  destroyed.  Owing 
to  some  mismanagement  on  the  part  of  the  physicians, 
who,  at  an  early  period,  misunderstood  the  queen's 
situation,  the  medicines  they  gave  her  had  an  injurious 
effect  on  her  constitution.'^  It  is  certain  that  Isabella 
placed  little  confidence  in  the  Spanish  doctors,  or  in 
their  prescriptions.''  There  may  have  been  good 
ground  for  her  distrust ;  for  their  vigorous  applications 
savor  not  a  little  of  the  Sangrado  school  of  practice, 
directed  quite  as  much  against  the  constitution  of  the 
patient  as  against  his  disease.  About  the  middle  of 
September  a  fever  set  in,  which,  though  not  violent, 
was  so  obstinate  as  to  defy  all  the  efforts  of  the  phy- 
sicians to  reduce  it.  More  alarming  symptoms  soon 
followed.  The  queen  frequently  swooned.  Her  ex- 
tremities became  torpid.  Medicines  were  of  no  avail, 
for  her  stomach  refused  to  retain  them.™     Processions 

»8  Letter  of  Fourquevaulx,  October  3d,  1568,  ap.  Raumer,  Six- 
teenth and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  158. 

19  "  Pero  la  Reyna  hacia  muy  poco  caudal  de  lo  que  los  medicos 
decian,  dando  a  entender  con  su  Real  condicion  y  gracioso  semblante 
tener  poca  necesidad  de  sus  medicinas."  Relacion  de  la  Enfermedad 
y  Essequias  funebres  de  la  Serenissima  Reyna  de  Espaiia  Dona  Ysa- 
bel  de  Valois,  por  Juan  Lopez,  Catedratico  del  Estudio  de  Madrid 
(Madrid,  1569),  fol.  4. 

=»  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. — The  learned  professor  has  given  the  various 
symptoms  of  the  queen's  malady  with  as  curious  a  minuteness  as  if 
he  had  been  concocting  a  medical  report.  As  an  order  v/as  issued, 
shortly  after  the  publication  of  the  work,  prohibiting  its  sale,  copies 
of  it  are  exceedingly  rare. 


a  measure  also  afflicts  her,  has  commanded  her  not  to  write  about  the 

matter  till  he  permits  her.   Gacliard,  Don  Carlos  et  Pliiiippe  IL — Ed.J 

47* 


558  DEATH  OF  ISABELLA. 

tvere  everywhere  made  to  the  churches,  and  young  and 
old  joined  in  prayers  for  her  recovery.  But  these 
prayers  were  not  heard.  The  strength  of  Isabella  con- 
tinued rapidly  to  decline,  and  by  the  last  of  September 
her  life  was  despaired  of.  The  physicians  declared 
that  science  could  go  no  further,  and  that  the  queen's 
only  hope  must  be  in  Heaven.^'  In  Heaven  she  had 
always  trusted ;  nor  was  she  so  wedded  to  the  pomps 
and  glories  of  the  world  that  she  could  not  now  will- 
ingly resign  them. 

As  her  ladies,  many  of  them  her  countrywomen, 
stood  weeping  around  her  bed,  she  endeavored  to 
console  them  under  their  affliction,  kindly  expressing 
the  interest  she  took  in  their  future  welfare,  and  her 
regret  that  she  had  not  made  them  a  better  mistress, — 
"as  if,"  says  a  contemporary,  who  has  left  a  minute 
record  of  her  last  moments,  "she  had  not  been  always 
more  of  a  mother  than  a  mistress  to  them  all !"  ''^ 

On  the  evening  of  the  second  of  October,  as  Isabella 
felt  herself  drawing  near  her  end,  she  made  her  will. 
She  then  confessed,  partook  of  the  sacrament,  and,  at 
her  desire,  extreme  unction  was  administered  to  her. 
Cardinal  Espinosa  and  the  king's  confessor,  the  bishop 
of  Cuenga,  who  were  present,  while  they  offered  her 
spiritual  counsel  and  consolation,  were  greatly  edified 
by  her  deportment ;  and,  giving  her  their  parting  bene- 

"  Quintana,  Historia  de  Madrid,  fol.  390. — Letter  of  Fourquevaulx, 
October  3d,  1568,  ap.  Raumer,  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries, 
vol.  i.  p.  139. — Juan  Lopez,  Relacion  de  la  Enfermedad  de  la  Reyna 
Ysabel,  ubi  supra. — Pinelo,  Anales  de  Madrid,  MS. 

»»  "  Porque  en  efecto,  el  niodo  y  manera  conque  ella  las  trataba,  no 
hera  de  senora  d  quicn  pareciesen  servir,  sino  de  madre  y  companera." 
Juan  Lopez,  Relacion  de  la  Enfermedad  dc  la  Reyna  Ysabel,  loc,  cit. 


HER    ILLNESS. 


559 


diction,  they  went  away  deeply  affected  by  the  spirit 
of  Christian  resignation  which  she  displayed.^ 

Before  daybreak,  on  the  following  morning,  she  had 
'her  last  interview  with  Philip.  We  have  the  account 
of  it  from  Fourqucvaulx.  "The  queen  spoke  to  her 
husband  very  naturally,"  says  the  ambassador,  "and 
like  a  Christian.  She  took  leave  of  him  forever,  and 
never  did  princess  show  more  goodness  and  piety. 
She  commended  to  him  her  two  daughters,  and  her 
principal  attendants,  beseeching  him  to  live  in  amity 
with  the  king,  of  France,  her  brother,  and  to  maintain 
peace, — with  other  discourse,  which  could  not  fail  to 
touch  the  heart  of  a  good  husband,  which  the  king  was 
to  her.  He  showed,  in  his  replies,  the  same  composure 
as  she  did,  and  promised  to  obey  all  her  requests,  but 
added,  he  did  not  think  her  end  so  near.  He  then 
withdrew, — as  I  was  told, — in  great  anguish,  to  his  own 
chamber."'^  Philip  sent  a  fragment  of  the  true  cross, 
to  comfort  his  wife  in  her  last  moments.  It  was  the 
most  precious  of  his  relics,  and  was  richly  studded  with 
pearls  and  diamonds. ^^^  Isabella  fervently  kissed  the 
sacred  relic,  and  held  it,  with  the  crucifix,  in  her  hand, 
while  she  yet  lived. 

Not  long  after  the  interview  with  her  husband,  the 
ambassador  was  summoned  to  her  bedside.      He  was 

'•3  Juan  Lopez,  Relacion  de  la  Enfermedad  de  la  Reyna  Ysabel,  loc. 
cit. — Pinelo,  Anales  de  Madrid,  MS. 

*»  Letter  of  Fourqucvaulx,  October  3d,  1568,  ap.  Raumer,  Six- 
teenth and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  159. 

*s  "  Habia  ordenado  se  tragese  el  lignum  crucis  del  Rey  nuestro 
Seiior,  que  es  una  muy  buena  parte  que  con  grandismo  hornato  de 
oro  y  perlas  de  supremo  valor  S.  M.  tiene."  Juan  Lopez,  Relacion 
de  la  Enfermedad  de  la  Reyna  Isabel. 


560  DEATH  OF  ISABELLA. 

the  representative  of  her  native  land,  and  of  the  dear 
friends  there  she  was  never  more  to  see.  "She  knew 
me,"  writes  FourquevauLx,  "and  said,  'You  see  me 
in  the  act  of  quitting  this  vain  world,  to  pass  to  a  more 
pleasant  kingdom,  there,  as  I  hope,  to  be  forever  with 
my  God.  Tell  my  mother,  the  queen,  and  the  king, 
my  brother,  to  bear  my  death  with  patience,  and  to 
comfort  themselves  with  the  reflection  that  no  happiness 
on  earth  has  ever  made  me  so  content  as  the  prospect 
now  does  of  approaching  my  Creator.  I  shall  soon  be 
in  a  better  situation  to  do  them  service,  and  to  implore 
God  to  take  them  and  my  brothers  under  his  holy  pro- 
tection. Beseech  them,  in  my  name,  to  watch  over 
their  kingdom,  that  an  end  may  be  put  to  the  heresies 
which  have  spread  there.  And  I  will  pray  Heaven,  in 
its  mercy,  to  grant  that  they  may  take  my  death  with 
patience,  and  hold  me  for  happy.'  "  ^ 

The  ambassador  said  a  few  words  of  comfort,  endeav- 
oring to  give  her,  if  possible,  some  hopes  of  life.  But 
she  answered,  "  You  will  soon  know  how  near  I  am  to 
my  end.  God  has  given  me  grace  to  despise  the  world 
and  its  grandeur,  and  to  fix  all  my  hopes  on  him  and 
Jesus  Christ.  Never  did  a  thought  occasion .  me  less 
anxiety  than  that  of  death." 

"  She  then  listened  to  the  exhortations  of  her  con- 
fessor, remaining  in  full  possession  of  her  consciousness 
till  a  few  minutes  before  her  death.  A  slight  restless- 
ness seemed  to  come  over  her,  which  soon  subsided, 
and  she  expired  so  tranquilly  that  it  was  impossible  to 
fix  the  moment  when  she  gave  up  the  ghost.     Yet  she 

36  Letter  of  Fourqucvaulx,  ap.  Raunicr,  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth 
Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  159. 


HER   OBSEQUIES.  561 

opened  her  eyes  once,  bright  and  glancing,  and  it 
seemed  as  if  she  would  address  me  some  further  com- 
mands,— at  least,  her  looks  were  fixed  on  me."'' 

Not  long  before  Isabella's  death,  she  was  delivered 
of  a  daughter.  Its  birth  was  premature,  and  it  lived 
only  to  be  baptized.  The  infant  was  laid  in  the  same 
coffin  with  its  mother;  and  that  very  evening  their  re- 
mains were  borne  in  solemn  procession  to  the  royal 
chapel.'^  The  tolling  of  the  bells  in  the  churches  and 
monasteries  throughout  the  city  announced  the  sad 
tidings  to  the  people,  who  filled  the  air  with  their 
cries,  making  everywhere  the  most  passionate  demon- 
strations of  grief;  °5  for  the  queen,  says  Brantome, 
"was  regarded  by  them  not  merely  with  feelings  of 
reverence,  but  of  idolatry. "  ^^ 

»7  Letter  of  Fourquevaulx,  ap.  Raumer,  loc.  cit. — The  correspond- 
ence of  the  French  ambassador  Fourquevaulx  is  presented,  in  MS., 
in  the  Royal  Library  at  Paris.  Raumer,  with  his  usual  judgment, 
has  freely  extracted  from  it;  and  the  freedom  with  which  I  have 
drawn  upon  him  shows  the  importance  of  his  extracts  to  the  illustra- 
tion of  the  present  story.  I  regret  that  my  knowledge  of  the  existence 
of  this  correspondence  came  too  late  to  allow  me  to  draw  from  the 
original  sources. 

»8  "  Bistieron  a  la  Reyna  de  habito  de  S.  Francisco,  y  la  pusieroi. 
en  un  ataud  poniendo  con  ella  la  infanta  que  en  poco  espacio  habi- 
endo  recebido  agua  de  Espiritu  Santo  murio."  Juan  Lopez,  Rela- 
cion  de  la  Enfermedad  de  la  Reyna  Ysabel. 

=9  "  Fue  cosa  increible  el  doblar,  y  chamorear,  por  todas  las  parro- 
quias,  y  monasterios,  y  hospitales.  Lo  cual  causo  un  nuebo  dolor  y 
grandisimo  aumento  de  tristeza,  siendo  ya  algo  tarde  los  grandes  que 
en  la  corte  se  hallaban,  y  mayordomos  de  S.  M.  sacaron  el  cuerpo  dc 
la  Reyna,  y  binieron  con  el  a  la  Capilla  Real."     Ibid. 

30  "Jamais  on  ne  vit  peuple  si  desole  ny  si  afflige,  ni  tant  jeter  de 
hauts  cris,  ny  tant  espandre  de  larmes  qu'il  fit.  .  .  .  Que,  pour  ma 
niere  de  parler,  vous  eussiez  dit  qu'il  I'idolatroit  plustost  qu'il  ne 
I'honoroit  et  revcroit."     Brantome.  CE  ivres,  tom.  v.  p.  131. 

Y* 


562  DEATH  OF  ISABELLA. 

In  the  chapel  were  gathered  together  whatever  was 
illustrious  in  the  capital, — the  high  ecclesiastics,  and 
the  different  religious  bodies,  the  grandees  and  cava- 
liers of  the  court,  and  the  queen's  ladies  of  honor.  At 
the  head  of  these  stood  the  duchess  of  Alva,  the  mis- 
tress of  the  robes,  with  the  duchess  of  Feria — an  Eng- 
lish lady,  married  to  the  Spanish  ambassador  at  the 
court  of  Mary  Tudor — and  the  princess  of  Eboli,  a 
name  noted  in  history.  The  coffin  of  the  deceased 
queen,  covered  wifch  its  gorgeous  pall  of  brocade,  was 
placed  on  a  scaffold  shrouded  in  black,  and  surrounded 
with  numerous  silver  sconces  bearing  wax  tapers,  that 
shed  a  gloomy  lustre  over  the  scene. 3'  The  services  were 
performed  amidst  the  deepest  stillness  of  the  audience, 
unless  when  broken  by  the  wailings  of  the  women, 
which  mingled  in  sad  harmony  with  the  chant  of  the 
priests  and  the  sweet  and  solemn  music  that  accom- 
panied the  office  for  the  dead.^^ 

Early  on  the  following  morning  the  coffin  was  opened 
in  presence  of  the  duchess  of  Alva  and  the  weeping 
ladies  of  her  train,  who  gazed  for.  the  last  time  on  fea- 
tures still  beautiful  in  death. ^3     The  duchess  then  filled 

3»  "  Puesto  el  cuerpo  por  este  orden  cubierto  con  un  muy  rico  pano 
de  brocado  rodeado  el  cadalso  de  muchas  achas  en  sus  muy  sumtuo- 
sos  blandones  de  plata."  Juan  Lopez,  Relacion  de  la  Enfermedad 
de  la  Reyna  Ysabel,  ubi  supra. 

32  "  Las  damas  en  las  tribunas  de  donde  oye  misa  con  hartos  suspi- 
ros  y  sollozos  llebaban  el  contrapunto  d  la  suave,  triste  y  contempla- 
tiba  musica,  conque  empezaron  el  oficio  la  capilla  de  S.  M."  Ibid., 
ubi  supra. 

33  "  Las  cuales  viendo  apartar  el  cueipo,  dieron  muchos  gritos,  y 
suspiros  y  abriendole  la  duquesa  de  Alba,  trajo  muchos  polbos  de 
olores  aromaticos'de  grande  olor  y  fragrancia,  y  embalsamon  a  la 
Reyna :  la  cual  aunque  habia  pasado  tanto  ticmpo  estaba  como  si 


HER    OBSEQUIES.  563 

the  coffin  with  flowers  and  sweet-scented  herbs;  and 
the  remains  of  mother  and  child  were  transported  by 
the  same  sorrowing  company  to  the  convent  of  the 
barefooted  Carmelites.  Here  they  reposed  till  the  year 
15735  when  they  were  borne,  with  the  remains  of  Car- 
los, to  the  stately  mausoleum  of  the  Escorial ;  and  the 
populace,  as  they  gazed  on  the  funeral  train,  invoked 
the  name  of  Isabella  as  that  of  a  saint.^ 

In  the  course  of  the  winter.  Cardinal  Guise  arrived 
from  France  with  letters  of  condolence  from  Charles 
the  Ninth  to  his  royal  brother-in-law.  The  instruc- 
tions to  the  cardinal  do  not  infer  any  distrust,  on 
the  part  of  the  French  monarch,  as  to  the  manner 
of  his  sister's  death.  The  more  suspicious  temper 
of  the  queen-mother,  Catherine  de  Medicis,  is  seen 
in  her  directions  to  Fourquevaulx  to  find  out  what  was 
said  on  the  subject  of  her  daughter's  death,  and  to  re- 
port it  to  her.^s  It  does  not  seem  that  the  ambassador 
gathered  any  information  of  consequence  to  add  to  his 
former  details. 

Philip  himself  maj  have  had  in  his  mind  the  possible 
existence  of  such  suspicions  when  he  told  the  cardinal 
that  "his  best  consolation  for  his  loss  was  derived  from 
his  reflection  on  the  simple  and  excellent  life  of  the 
queen.  All  her  attendants,  her  ladies  and  maids,  knew 
how  well  he  had  treated  her,  as  was  sufficiently  proved 

entonces  acabara  de  morir,  y  con  tan  gran  hermosura  en  el  rostro 
que  noparecia  esta  muerta."  Juan  Lopez,  Relacion  delaEnfermedad 
de  la  Reyna  Isabel,  ubi  supra. 

34  Letter  of  St.  Goar,  June  i8th,  1573,  ap.  Raumer,  Sixteenth  and 
Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  163. — Quintana,  Historia  de  Madrid, 
fol.  370. 

35  Letter  of  Catherine  de  Jiledicis,  ap.  Raumer,  vol.  i.  p.  162. 


564  DEATH  OF  ISABELLA. 

by  the  extraordinary  sorrow  which  he  felt  at  her  death. 
Hereupon,"  continues  the  cardinal,  "he  broke  forth 
into  a  panegyric  on  her  virtues,  and  said,  were  he  to 
choose  again,  he  could  wish  nothing  better  than  to  find 
just  such  another." 3*  It  was  not  long  before  Philip 
made  the  attempt.  In  eighteen  months  from  the  date 
of  his  conversation  with  the  cardinal,  the  thrice-wid- 
owed husband  led  to  the  altar  his  fourth  and  last  wife, 
Anne  of  Austria, — like  her  predecessor,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  destined  bride  of  his  son.  The  facility  with 
which  her  imperial  parents  trusted  the  young  princess 
to  the  protection  of  Philip  may  be  thought  to  intimate 
pretty  clearly  that  they,  at  least,  had  no  misgivings  as 
to  the  king's  treatment  of  his  former  wife.* 

Isabella,  at  her  decease,  was  but  twenty-three  years 
of  age,  eight  of  which  she  had  been  seated  on  the 
throne  of  Spain.  She  left  two  children,  both  daugh- 
ters,— Catherine,  afterwards  married  to  the  duke  of 
Savoy,  and  Clara  Eugenia,  who  became  with  her  hus- 
band, the  Archduke  Albert,  joint  ruler  of  the  Nether- 
lands, and  who  seems  to  have  enjoyed  a  greater  share 
of  both  the  love  and  the  confidence  of  Philip  than  he 
ever  vouchsafed  to  any  other  being. 

Such  is  the  story  of  Queen  Isabella,  stripped  of  the 
coloring  of  romance,  for  which,  in  truth,  it  has  been 
quite  as  much  indebted  to  the  pen  of  the  historian  as 

36  Lettei'  of  Cardinal  Guise,  February  6th,  1569,  ap.  Raumer,  vol.  i. 
P-  163.  

[■*  The  proposal,  as  already  mentioned,  had  come  from  the  emperor. 
Catherine  de  Medicis  also  no  sooner  heard  of  Isabella's  death  than 
she  offered  another  of  her  daughters  for  the  vacant  place.  Gachard, 
Don  Carlos  et  Philippe  II.— Ed.] 


HER    CHARACTER.  565 

to  that  of  the  poet.  From  the  whole  account  it  ap- 
pears that,  if  Carlos  at  any  time  indulged  a  criminal 
passion  for  his  step-mother,  such  a  passion  was  never 
requited  or  encouraged  by  Isabella,  who  seems  to  have 
felt  for  him  only  the  sentiments  that  were  justified  by 
their  connection  and  by  the  appeal  which  his  misfor- 
tunes made  to  her  sympathy.  Notwithstanding  some 
feelings  of  resentment,  not  unnatural,  when,  in  the 
words  of  Brantome,  "he  had  been  defrauded  of  so  fair 
a  prize,"  there  is  yet  little  evidence  that  the  prince's 
passion  for  her  rose  higher  than  the  sentiments  of  love 
and  gratitude  which  her  kindness  might  well  have 
awakened  in  an  affectionate  nature. ^^  And  that  such, 
with  all  his  errors,  was  the  nature  of  Carlos,  is  shown, 
among  other  examples,  by  his  steady  attachment  to 
Don  John  of  Austria,  his  uncle,  and  by  his  devotion  to 
his  early  preceptor,  the  bishop  of  Osma. 

There  is  no  proof  that  Philip  was  at  any  time  dis- 
pleased with  the  conduct  of  his  queen,  or  that  he 
regarded  his  son  in  the  light  of  a  rival.  Least  of  all 
is___thei£„aaything  in  the  history  of  the  time  to  show 
that  he  sacrificed  his  wife  to  his  jealousy. ^^     The  con- 

37  The  openness  with  which  Carlos  avowed  his  sentiments  for  Isa- 
bella may  be  thought  some  proof  of  their  innocence.  Catherine  de 
Medicis,  in  a  letter  to  Fourquevaulx,  dated  February  23d,  1568,  says, 
alluding  to  the  prince's  arrest,  "  I  am  concerned  that  the  event  very 
much  distresses  my  daughter,  as  well  with  regard  to  her  husband  as 
in  respect  of  the  prince,  who  has  always  let  her  know  the  good  will 
he  bears  to  her."  Raumer,  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries, 
vol.  i.  p.  141. 

38  The  French  historian  De  Thou,  by  no  means  disposed  to  pass 
too  favorable  a  judgment  on  the  actions  of  Philip,  and  who  in  the 
present  case  would  certainly  not  be  likely  to  show  him  any  particular 
grace,  rejects  without  hesitation  the  suspicion  of  foul  play  on  the  part 

Pliilip.— Vol.  II.  48 


566  DEATH  OF  ISABELLA. 

trary  is  well  established  by  those  of  her  own  country- 
men who  had  free  access  to  her  during  her  lifetime, — 
some  of  them  in  the  hour  of  her  death, — whose  corre- 
spondence with  her  family  would  not  have  failed  to 
intimate  their  suspicions  had  there  been  any  thing  to 
suspect. 

Well  would  it  be  for  the  memory  of  Philip  the 
Second  could  the  historian  find  no  heavier  sin  to  lay 
to  his  charge  than  his  treatment  of  Isabella.  From 
first  to  last  he  seems  to  have  regarded  her  with  the  in- 
dulgence of  an  affectionate  husband.  Whether  she 
ever  obtained  such  an  ascendency  over  his  close  and 
cautious  nature  as  to  be  allowed  to  share  in  his  confi- 
dence and  his  counsels,  may  well  be  doubted.  Her 
temper  would  seem  to  have  been  too  gentle,  too  devoid 
of  worldly  ambition,  to  prompt  her  to  meddle  with 
affairs  for  which  she  was  fitted  neither  by  nature  nor 
education.  Yet  Brantome  assures  us  that  she  exercised 
a  most  salutary  influence  over  her  lord  in  his  relations 
with  France,  and  that  the  value  of  this  influence  was 
appreciated  in  later  times,  when  the  growing  misunder- 
standings between  the  two  courts  were  left  to  rankle, 
without   any  friendly   hand   to   heal   them.^^      <*Her 

of  the  king:  "Quelqnesuns  soup9onnerent  Philippe  de  I'avoir  fait 
empoissoner,  parce  qu'il  lui  avoit  fait  un  crime  de  la  trop  grande  fa- 
niiliarite  qu'elle  avoit  avec  Dom  Carlos.  II  est  neanmoins  facile  de 
se  convaincre  du  contraire,  par  la  grande  et  sincere  douleiir  que  sa 
mort  causa,  tant  k  la  Cour  que  dans  toute  I'Espagne ;  le  Roi  la  pleura, 
comme  une  femme  qu'il  aimoit  tres-tendrement."  Histoire  universelle, 
torn.  V.  p.  437. 

39  Brantome,  GEuvres,  torn.  v.  p.  137. — Yet  Isabella's  mother,  Cath- 
erine de  Medicis,  found  fault  with  her  daughter,  in  the  interview  at 
Bayonne,  for  having  become  altogether  a  Spaniard,  saying  to  her, 
tauntingly,  "Aluy  Espanola  venis."     To  which  the  queen  meekly  re« 


ITER    CHARACTER. 


5^7 


death,"  he  continues,  "was  as  bitter  to  her  own  na- 
tion as  it  was  to  the  Spaniards;  and  if  the  latter  called 
her  'the  Queen  of  Peace  and.  Goodness,'  the  former 
with  no  less  reason  styled  her  'the  Olive-branch.'  "•*° 
"But  she  has  passed  away,"  he  exclaims,  "in  the 
sweet  and  pleasant  April  of  her  age, — when  her  beauty 
was  such  that  it  seemed  as  if  it  might  almost  defy  the 
assaults  of  time.""' 

The  queen  occupies  an  important  place  in  that  rich 
gallery  of  portraits  in  which  Brantome  has  endeavored 
to  perpetuate  the  features  of  his  contemporaries.  In 
no  one  of  them  has  he  traced  the  lineaments  with  a 
more  tender  and  delicate  hand.  Even  the  breath  of 
scandal  has  had  no  power  to  dim  the  purity  of  their 
expression.  Of  all  that  illustrious  company  which  the 
artist  has  brought  in  review  before  the  eyes  of  posterity, 
there  is  no  one  to  whom  he  has  so  truly  rendered  the 
homage  of  the  heart  as  to  Elizabeth  of  France. 

But  from  these  scenes  of  domestic  sorrow  it  is  time 
that  we  should  turn  to  others  of  a  more  stirring  and 
adventurous  character. 

plied,  "  It  is  possible  that  it  may  be  so  ;  but  you  will  still  find  me  the 
same  daughter  to  you  as  when  you  sent  me  to  Spain."  The  anecdote 
is  told  by  Alva  in  a  letter  to  the  king.  Carta  del  Duque  de  Alva  al 
Rev,  MS. 

40  "  Aussi  I'appelloit-on  la  Reyna  de  la  paz  y  de  la  bondad,  c'est-k- 
dire  la  Reyne  de  la  paix  et  de  la  bonte ;  et  nos  Fran9ois  I'appellarent 
I'olive  de  paix."     Brantome,  QEuvres,  tom.  v.  p.  129. 

41  "  Elle  est  morte  au  plus  beau  et  plaisant  avril  de  son  aage.  .  .  . 
Car  elle  estoit  de  naturel  et  de  tainct  pour  durer  longtemps  belle,  et 
aussi  que  la  vieillesse  ne  I'eust  ose  attaquer,  car  sa  beaute  fut  este  plus 
forte."     Ibid.,  p.  137. 

END    OF    THE    SECOND    VOLUME. 


^268     1 


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